


Mistakes Were Made - AO3 Edition

by Zies



Category: League of Legends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-05
Updated: 2014-04-30
Packaged: 2018-01-11 07:55:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 21,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1170595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zies/pseuds/Zies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The crippling global economy continues to affect large cities well into the year 2016: employment is scarce, wages low, and everywhere there are people willing to work minimum wage in low-skilled jobs. At the same time the eSports and competitive gaming industry is ever-growing, and the competition is as fierce as ever.</p><p>This Edition is modified (and will only be Part One of Three), but is missing some vital elements of the full text that is Mistakes Were Made.</p><p>For updates and to see the current full version, visit: <a href="http://bit.ly/MistakesWereMade">http://bit.ly/MistakesWereMade</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Civilization

* * *

#  **1  
Civilization**

"Corporation, noun: An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility." Ambrose Bierce

* * *

Casual conversation, fused with the soft aroma of food, drifted throughout the restaurant. Echoes of an enduring and lively civilization filled the floor. Conversations and carefree laughter clashed and intertwined midair: the voices of the mothers and fathers pleased with and at ease with life, and the giggling of children too young to have any worries. A calm and familiar song played for all the customers of the restaurant, a song neither too boring to lull the people asleep nor too raunchy that may fall under the category of offensive. Within the confines of the orange-lit room, nothing in life could be better.

Customers lined up to place their orders. For some it was simple: a burger, some fries, and a soda. For others, not quite so: four, no, six, no, eight burgers, two medium fries, four small sodas. Damn, a dollar short. Make that just two small fries, then. And then they would be irritated anytime they were politely asked to repeat their confusing order. Then there were those with special needs: no onions, please—and a please was rare—hold the tomatoes or no lettuce were common as well.

Taking the orders were those wishing they could be elsewhere, all wishing they could have it better. The high schooler, the least experienced of the bunch, was always assigned with the cleaning tasks so that he would never be in the position to spit into the burgers or pocket a few dollars in the collective blind spot of the cameras. The college students, all in need of four years' work experience before being eligible for an entry level position, dealt with the loud, hungry crowd. The college graduates were here only because nowhere else would pay. They were the most skilled of the unskilled: they knew at which precise temperatures and at which exact angle to handle the meat. All employed to do menial tasks for meager earnings, and at the mercy of the dollar, they were locked in place for the foreseeable future.

But they deserved their earnings because they were unskilled, and this was the best way to get started. And they were employed by good, kind people, with worthy, noble intentions. They ought to be grateful for this opportunity and for this income, it was the same job and pay their grandparents had. Besides, business was booming this quarter, with profits on the rise and labor aplenty. Never worry about the lack of labor: should we be in need of any, simply hire the next schmuck to enter the doors. You want a job? You need a job? Come one, come all, anyone can do this work, welcome aboard. It is important to always have a crew expendable.

No…necessary.

No…crucial.

No… _vital_.

It is vital to always have a crew expendable.

All those struggling to make it by need to figure things out on their own: their struggles are their own fault, no one else's. Don't come crying to us for a raise. We're in the business of serving food and making profits, not providing living wages. Don't be so selfish. Think of the company's wellbeing. Don't like it? Door's right there. Next!

The men and women behind the counter scurry about, performing their mind-numbing jobs to the laziest of their ability. The clock was the only thing keeping them sane, and each time they peered in its direction, they would be absolutely certain that each second had passed by twice as quickly as the one prior. Only three hours left until there's only one hour left before the half-hour left before my designated five-minute break, then just another hour before the last hour of the work day. All the while orders flooded in. The faces of the cashiers were bombarded with dialects and accents and teenagers and coins and profanity. The food was prepared and served and taken without so much as a thank you muttered in return.

But it was payday and they would finally reap the minimal fruits of their labor. The workers received a blue card with all of their earnings in it. Using the card would result in a fee. A fee each time they would check their remaining balance, each time they would withdraw funds, a fee for transferring funds from the card to any other account. But it was worthwhile because it saved the company paperwork and signatures and time and money and thus, in the long run, brought in more profit. It was a good move, an intelligent business decision, made by the intelligent, wealthy, educated men running the company who are never to be doubted.

Those who were done for the day walked out the doors of the restaurant and saw their evening counterparts entering to complete the work yet to be done. And evermore the cycle continued.

Exiting the doors onto the packed and busy streets, the workers dispersed and became part of the crowd. Upon steel pillars and platforms, metallic trains came to screeching halts. On the roads, vehicles of all sizes and of all purposes sped about in all directions as pedestrians flowed around them like water. A unifying song, a song without rhythm or melody, emanated from the drivers who honked their horns every chance they got. Every few blocks the city's anthem of emergency sirens reverberated across the streets and most people stopped in place and looked both ways before crossing at the red light.

People on the sidewalks were of all ages and creeds and dreams, but the things they most valued were not theirs. All cars on the street, and all that education they had earned, and all the homes in which they lived, still had to be paid off. All the vehicles parked at every street, all the local businesses who advertised their services on billboards and public transportation, all was debt. And best not let anything default else our education go out of business, else our public transportation no longer drive in profits, else our hospitals bleed negative income.

And of course the banks would be closing at precisely the same time the standard work day came to a close. The hours of operation were somehow always set to inconvenience those who worked steady jobs for questionable pay.

And of course, whenever it just so happened to be rush hour, the homeless would just so happen to be camped out in front of the restaurants and the bus stops and the subway stations and the jewelry stores and the bakeries and the markets.

Of course.

They would shake their cups so that their coins would ring, and please, they would plead, and God bless you, would say the more patriotic ones, and evermore until no one watched. Meanwhile the world walked on without even the slightest of a damn. But they only ignored the homeless because every penny donated meant another penny shy for food or water or rent, and another penny closer to end up like them.

As the employed made their way home, they would bear witness to the state of their crumbling neighborhoods. Countless streets housed entire apartment buildings boarded off with blue plywood and overgrown in foliage. Homes were colored of Rooms for Rent, and shaded of Price Reduced, and tinged of For Sale By Owner.

The evicted and derelict homes became canvases for graffiti artists, and had become plots of land solely for the purpose of garbage disposal. Three, four, five homes per block.

Outside the homes, parked cars read 4/S with ten digit numbers posted underneath. Six, seven, eight cars per block.

They closed the door behind themselves, the cold air faded away, and finally they were home, safe, and all the troubles of the world seemed to dissipate.


	2. NeoTokyo

* * *

****

# 2  
NeoTokyo

****

"What is happiness? The feeling that power increases—that resistance is overcome." Friedrich Nietzsche

* * *

He walked up the flight of stairs, entered his room and dropped onto his bed. As he lay there, the grease that had accumulated on his hands and face and clothes were slipping onto his sheets. The red numbers on his desk changed from 5:39 to 5:52 to 6:18. For every number that changed, the room grew darker and darker, and the sounds outside softer and softer. At least it was finally Friday.

He took off his heavy, stained uniform and worked his way downstairs. He heard recorded laughter coming from the television, and then saw two blue-lit bodies sitting on the couch staring at the screen, empty bottles scattered across the floor, a sweating bottle tightly clasped in their hands. They took no note as he entered the bathroom.

The warm water dropped down on him, tapping against his skull, cleansing away the grime that had gathered that day, and slowly the filth trickled down. He kept the water on until it aged his fingertips.

He dried himself off and stood in the tub thinking many thoughts and pondering many ideas until he spontaneously sprang back into active consciousness.

Leaving the bathroom he headed towards the kitchen in the dark, making as little noise as possible. The refrigerator hummed loudly as he got nearer. Yellow light poured onto the walls behind him, but of course there was nothing there: two bottles of beer, a gallon of milk half empty, and a stick of butter half gone. Working his way back toward the stairs, a small creature ran into him.

He's home! the thing would yell, passing by at such impeccable timing. He would push it against the wall just in time so its cries would be ignored. Go pick up some food! one parent would say. And do something productive today instead of just sitting in front of your computer all night long! would say the other. And bring those last two beers over before you go! Their empty gazes were glued to the television screen as they went bottoms up.

Of course.  
Of course, of course, of course!

The cool air slapped his face as he walked down the street. He took out a cigarette and held it between his lips for five, six, seven street tiles. His hand brought up the lighter and lit the cigarette. His lungs came to life and became jubilant, reunited with an old companion. He walked on, hands in pockets, sucking on the sweet, indulging stick, walking past the Chinese restaurant a few tiles before turning back.

What up? a familiar face in the dark would ask, holding out a fist.  
A shrug, their fists bumped.  
Yeah, life sucks on my end too, as they smoked outside the restaurant.  
Sesame chicken! the short Chinese man behind the counter would yell. A'ight, I'll catch ya later, bro, he got his food and disappeared into the night.

Ha'f a chicken wih pok fied wice an' chicken wih broccoli an' wie wice! He inhaled deeply and threw away what remained. Fo'teen fity! the tiny man would say. An' wememba…smoking _ba_ ' fo' you! Nomo' smoking! same as he had told the friend.

He hesitated at the doorway of his home, placed the bag inside and walked back to the nearest bodega. He withdrew all of the funds on the card that he got from work that day, paying twelve dollars for fees in the process in addition to the ATM's $2.75 fee. Returning home, he checked his pockets to recall where he had left his cash and where he had left the now empty card.

What took you? We're starving! And where are those beers!?

He took out one of the styrofoam containers and dropped the bag on the table. Back in his room, the only light he could see were the red numbers on the desk: 7:43. He flicked the light switch and saw his room exactly as he had left it that morning: his garbage and papers exactly where they were, his boxes and books left untouched, his bed unmade, now with grease. Posters of his favorite games and musicians and animes and teams were mounted onto his walls. If only there was more wall than posters.

He sat down in his chair, put on his headset, and turned on his computer. He took out the blue card and laid it above his mouse. His monitors brightened, he typed his password, and his background came into focus. He opened up his browser and clicked a bookmark to Pandora, immediately his preferred music began to play.

He clicked another bookmark, instantly the page loaded. Twitch's featured stream was a speed runner. A blue man ran towards the right shooting peas out of his arm, he jumped and climbed ladders, a quick menu, the blue man turned gray and he would shoot out a white boomerang. A timer would show whether or not this was a new record and by how many seconds or milliseconds better or worse it was compared to the world record and the player's best record.

Below the featured content was a list of other games being streamed, all sorted by live viewers. First on the list was his game of choice: _League of Legends_.

No Sinik, no Inertia, no Crescendo, no Equinox, no Eumoda – players who consistently drew in tens of thousands of viewers. The current top streamer had around seven thousand viewers. Espada, Team Ampersand's mid laner, was a very strong player. Well known for his humorous and risky antics in game, Espada was a favored streamer for many excitable people.

He dashed toward a half-health Orianna with Spirit Rush, he dropped the Ignite, landed the Charm, dashed further forward to dodge the Command: Attack, Fox-Fires locked onto the low health target, he tossed out the orb, and dashed back toward safety, tanking two, three, four turret shots in the process. A blind monk emerged from the darkness. He waited for the precise moment to Flash away from the Sonic Wave. A webcam recorded his reactions throughout the course of the game and between his games while rap music played in the background.

"I Ignited her at the beginning because I knew I could get the kill even without starting off with Charm. If I didn't juke the Ult with another dash I would've definitely died, though. At the same time I knew I couldn't tank the turret for too long. If an enemy stays in the lane with that amount of health when she knows my abilities and summoner spells up, the jungler was clearly nearby. If I played that better I could've saved Flash, though. He could have probably dived me and he would have been fine, but didn't know where my jungler was, so he probably didn't want to go too ham."

On discussion forums he could see many topics: statistics for this patch, YouTube clips of stupid or funny or creative things that people have done or have had happen to them, artwork of their favorite characters. The more active topics made their way to the top of the page: rumors of certain teams acquiring new players, rumors of new teams on the horizon, threads dedicated to an amazing play a Korean player just did a few hours ago. Jokes and praise and ridicule and criticism and toxicity from all over the world found its way onto the internet as communities trash talked, argued, and poked fun at everyone.

> Cryo420 Posted 3 hours ago  
>  I don’t think Dendra had the best performance las season but if Royale can stup up their game im sure they can pull of first place this season. Maybe not internationally but at least in NA.
>
>> coooldude17 Posted 3 hours ago  
>  Dude, Dendra is fucking horrible. Royale should kick him and pick up a better player, Dasher could do way better then Dendra. Hell fucking Marlworlf could do better on roayal then on fucking arcadia. If royale’s management had any idea how to form and run a good team they’d definetly could get Marlworlf as quick as possible
>>
>>> ehugz Posted 2 hours ago  
>  The only reason you think MW would be a good replacement for Dendra is because you’re only thinking of stats and numbers but youre completely forgetting about the way Arcadia plays. MW is only able to put up good scores and win some games because Arcadia’s playstyle is more often then not high risk, high reward. If he can get some kills he can make game changing plays simply because roamy assassins are difficult as hell to deal with. Marlwolf just knows when it’s best to leave lane and knows hwo to decieve the person he’s laning against. If MW is targeted and fails for the first ten minutes of thegame Arcadia looses hands down. Royale’s success would not improve if they had MW because as a team Royale is far more aggressive if there’s even a 80% chance of winning a skirmish.

Since nothing was happening he decided to stream. He began his broadcast and all his social media pages instantaneously announced that he had gone live. In a matter of minutes three hundred viewers were drawn in.

"Hello," he said lazily into his headset's microphone as he waved lazily at his webcam. "I'm eating right now, so I'll just answer questions for a while before I get into a game." Twitch chat filled up with comments and questions and faces typed in by his viewers.

"Chinese food. Chicken with broccoli. The place near here is pretty good I guess, but I mean, I haven't really tasted much of the cooking from a lot of other different Chinese restaurants. I'm sure they're mostly the same." He skimmed past the stupid questions and silly comments until he found something worth answering.

"Mmm, I'm not too sure about all that talk about replacing Dendra. I mean, you have to consider the vastly different playstyles of the teams competing that season and this upcoming season. I think it's extremely stupid to not take teams in general into consideration. Every player has his strengths and weaknesses. You can look at numbers all you want, but ultimately you need the context of how the games played out and how the team played as a unit before criticizing a single player for poor performance or praising another for immaculate performance."

He chewed with a closed mouth and lifted his microphone away as he continued reading questions.

"M'drinking water. Not much of a fan of soda all the time. Maybe once a week I'll drink some soda or something."

"Where do I live? Check the FAQ below."  
"Uh, yes, I do have a fortune cookie… 'Learn Chinese, Spring.' Choon, teean. Choontyan. Help, I can't pronounce. 'It is very possible that you will achieve greatness in your lifetime.' Well, isn't that comforting news?" he asked his viewers as he tossed the paper into the air.

"Am I gay? Really? You assholes. I'm just gonna add that to the FAQ this time around."

"Alright, I'll start playing in a bit, let me get some more water while I log on. I'm gonna play some ads for a minute or so. Thanks to those of you not using Ad-Block, keep being awesome."

He went downstairs careful to place his feet as close to the edges of the steps as possible. Moving as quietly and as unnoticeable as a slithering solid snake, he refilled his cup and took a few sips on the way back. The loud television competed with the loud smacking of lips and the loud chewing of food while blue light bounced off the monitor.

The eyes of the mouths were fixed on the screen, which displayed a pair of lovers kissing under a chestnut tree. The channel would then resume the broadcast: a pundit would be angered about jobs being taken by non-Americans, and talk about an incompetent politician in the East whose country had a poor understanding and execution of democracy. He also spoke of a senator who, earlier that week, had stated that the only way anyone could fail and be poor in this country was if they were lazy and didn't do their fair share of work. Anyone can make it in this country, he had said, and ultimately nothing stood in the way other than sheer determination.

Melting back into the cover of darkness, he made his way upstairs, again taking gentle, precise steps. Back in his room, the younger brother was clicking around with the mouse.

"Get out," he sighed as he pushed the kid out, locking the door, and "Oh hi," as he rested his hands back on his mouse and keyboard.

A tab with the name DeusRex blinked orange in the game's window.

(20:29) DeusRex: yo lets duo  
NeoTokyo: lol, why?  
DeusRex: u and me close  
(20:30) NeoTokyo: Sounds legit, inivite me

"So it looks like Rex wants to chill for a bit. I know you guys like our crazy-stupid teamwork and shenanigans."

(20:32) DeusRex: get on raidcall

"You wanna dick around or play to win, Toke?" a laid back voice asked from his headset.  
"I'm down for whatever, man," he responded holding his left Shift key.  
"A'right then, we dickin' around. Time to make some YouTube worthy plays."

They got into the matchmaking queue and waited for the system to find suitable teammates and opponents of the same or similar skill level. Music poured into his ears as he played a typing game to ensure his fingers remained quick and precise. With only a few mistakes made, he scored 151 words per minute with a typing accuracy of 93.4%. He moved on to another game to test his accuracy and reflexes with his mouse: a rhythm game where he had to keep up with the beat and melody of the music. The more difficult songs were the faster ones he preferred.

A match was found and some familiar names showed up on their team.

amp Toxiform: tokyo ban LB pls  
DeusRex: Let me jungle, I got this shit  
"Try'n leave Lee open."  
Aleor: phyros u mind if I mid? D: i wanna practice ahri  
Royale Phyros: :/  
Royale Phyros: :///  
Royale Phyros: sure go ahead  
amp Toxiform: don't worry ill support u phy  
"I think they heard you, Rex,"  
"The scumbags. They _did_ show Lee and Renekton early…guess I'll go a bit tanky so we can dive the shit out of 'em. Kinda just wanna rush double Sunfires and proxy or push all game."

Teams and champions locked in. They quickly loaded into the game, browsing social media while the slow loaders caught up to 100%.

[00:02] NeoTokyo (Shen) purchased Warding Totem (Trinket)!  
[00:03] DeusRex (Maokai) purchased Warding Totem (Trinket)!  
[00:03] Royale Phyros (Ashe) purchased Warding Totem (Trinket)!  
[00:06] [All] ButTrauma (Renekton): tokyo, prepare urs  
[00:08] [All] NeoTokyo (Shen): lol  
[00:10] [All] NeoTokyo (Shen): I've taped it closed  
[00:13] [All] ButTrauma (Renekton): you think  
[00:13] Aleor (Ahri) purchased Warding Totem (Trinket)!  
[00:15] [All] ButTrauma (Renekton): i can't  
[00:15] [All] ButTrauma (Renekton): break through tape?  
[00:16] amp Toxiform (Janna) purchased Scrying Orb (Trinket)!  
[00:16] amp Toxiform (Janna) purchased Stealth Ward!

"You should gank him early. Teach him who needs the tape,"

[00:18] [All] NeoTokyo (Shen): it's duct tape, super durable  
[00:19] [All] Aleor (Ahri): lol  
[00:19] [All] ButTrauma (Renekton): lol

"That's Daze's smurf, right? It's like you guys are made for each otha. You should change the answer to your new FAQ question, you two flirt like you're married."

"You should be marriage counselor—who helps online couples get the most out of cybering."

"Ehh…" a ping dropped in the fog of war at the bottom right quadrant of the minimap, "Come to their Blue. Might need taunt."

[01:20] amp Toxiform (Janna): q or e?  
[01:24] DeusRex (Maokai): Q if they show up  
[01:25] DeusRex (Maokai): otherwise e

"I'm going to bail if they show up with more than two people. You're gonna get us killed just for Blue. I has a feel."

"Nah, man, they're either going our Blue or their Red. Sim won't consider the Tree invade."

"Wanna bet?"

"…nah, nevermind."

[01:47] amp Toxiform (Janna): doesn'tl ook like their comgin

"I'm headin' top,"

[02:03] [All] ButTrauma (Renekton): where u hiding, tokyeo?

"Let me get four before I go up,"  
"Lee's probably here. Also he has no wards."  
"Ah, I see 'im. Comin', comin', come to tri—tri, tri, tri. Let me block the next Q."  
"He has no Ignite."

[06:26] [All] SimJim (Lee Sin): y u so fat tree? : |

"You goin' back?"  
"Yeah, gonna wait a few seconds for a pink."

[07:03] [All] DeusRex (Maokai): sorry  
[07:05] [All] DeusRex (Maokai): i drank my milk  
[07:06] [All] DeusRex (Maokai): and ate my vegtables  
[07:07] [All] DeusRex (Maokai): growing up  
[07:53] [All] RefleX (Zyra): But I heard milk makes you shrink  
[07:58] [All] SimJim (Lee Sin): I'm pretty sure that's just you  
[08:21] [All] ButTrauma (Renekton): lmao  
[08:23] amp Toxiform (Janna) purchased Sight Ward!  
[08:24] [All] ButTrauma (Renekton): and i thought iwas a troll  
[08:30] [All] RefleX (Zyra): qq

"Haven't seen top in a while. Not sure if he's in our jungle or what."

[10:32] NeoTokyo (Shen) signals to be careful  
[10:32] DeusRex (Maokai) signals to be careful

"None of my camps were cleared. I swear I'm going to walk into them doing Dragon. Or…not. The fuck? Where are they?"

[11:12] ButTrauma has drawn first blood!  
[11:14] ButTrauma has slain amp Toxiform for a double kill!  
[11:18] ButTrauma has slain DeusRex for a triple kill!  
[11:18] ButTrauma is on a killing spree!

"Well, top's almost dead."

[11:20] amp Toxiform (Janna): wtf  
[11:22] amp Toxiform (Janna): is renek doing down here  
[11:52] NeoTokyo (Shen): We pinged.  
[12:23] DeusRex (Maokai): drag ~18:00  
[13:02] ButTrauma is on a rampage!  
[13:03] amp Toxiform (Janna): zzz  
[13:05] [All] ButTrauma (Renekton): lol  
[13:06] [All] ButTrauma (Renekton): no hawkshot?  
[13:10] [All] Royale Phyros (Ashe): i need dmg : (  
[13:32] Royale Phyros (Ashe): welp I'm sure this game's over  
[13:35] Royale Phyros (Ashe): sunfires all around  
[14:57] amp Toxiform (Janna): should just wait at blue  
[14:59] amp Toxiform (Janna): with sunfires  
[15:00] amp Toxiform (Janna): and jump them

Full Sunfire Cape teams, they would find, were ineffective against good Syndra players. But many laughs were had and the collective viewers of NeoToyko's stream and DeusRex's stream approved of the laid back game.

"Invite me for another, dude," he told DeusRex. As they waited for the matchmaking system to find suitable players again, he opened up Thunderbird to check his emails, ones sent to his personal address, ones sent to the email for his gaming handle, and the school email he used to talk with old classmates who knew nothing about video games.

A typical list of emails cluttered his Unread folder: sales for computer parts, new books and eBooks added to a particular site's collection, announcements of his favorite streamers going live, and other such automated notifications. He glanced over subject titles and senders before clicking Mark As Read.

One particular email stood out: "Confidential – Team Final Frontier Gaming" sent by a Simon Penn. Final Frontier Gaming was a website he joined some years ago and still frequented from time to time. He shared his knowledge of the game, his thoughts on the competitive scene, and it was where many of his viewers came from.

> Confidential – Team Final Frontier Gaming  
>  Fri, Oct 7, 2016, 14:00 (7 hours ago)  
>  **Simon Penn**  
>  to me
> 
> NeoTokyo,
> 
> It is with great pleasure that I write this email to you. As you can no doubt tell by the subject, we are finally looking to form a team to compete in the upcoming North American Series and you are one of our priorities.
> 
> This is an initial proposition to ask if you are interested in playing for and representing Final Frontier Gaming. As one of our priority players I will share the list of other priority players we are looking to acquire:
> 
> Crescendo – Support – Captain  
>  NeoTokyo – Top  
>  DeusRex – Jungle  
>  Marlwolf – Mid  
>  Zodiac – Marksman
> 
>   
> I believe I have made a pretty good job choosing roles, but I will be willing to talk to you guys about moving around if the need arises. On the occasion that Marlwolf is unwilling or unable to swap teams, we will instead opt for WildCat.
> 
> Because this is going to be a newly formed team and we will be going into this cold, we have set aside a budget to pay for a player's travel, as well as a salary for at least three months. As you know Riot guarantees a stable salary for teams that qualify into the LCS, so making it there will be tougher than simply being on FFG.
> 
> Feel free to reply with any questions you may have or talk to me on Skype (contact information available at FFG's contact page). Please respond with an official answer by the end of next week and we can discuss things in more depth.
> 
> Furthermore, please try to keep this under wraps for the time being until we can make an official announcement. Try not to show things off on stream (like the subject title for this email) and try not to talk about or hint towards this on social media. I cannot stress enough how important this is to us.
> 
> Thanks, and game on.
> 
> Sincerely,  
>  Simon "ShellShock" Penn  
>  Founder, Final Frontier Gaming

"Fuckin' Tokyo! You fucker! Why din't you accept the match?"  
"Shit. Fuck! Did you…uh…d'you get an email from…Shellsh—Shelly?"

"Oh, from Penny? Yeah, I got it. Thought you already saw that shit. So that's why you didn't accept? Anyway, yeah, I'm down for that thing he said."

He scanned the email again, read it over one more time, two more times, three more times, highlighted the email address to make sure there was no sleazy kerning. He navigated to Final Frontier Gaming's contact page to see if they matched. He copied the From field and the email from the contact page, pasted both onto Notepad, and they matched. It was ShellShock.

He took off his headset, placed it on his desk. He reclined all the way back on his chair, leaned his head against his chair and let out a long sigh. His computer quietly hummed at him, had been ever since he turned it on but only now had he noticed.

Twitch chat filled with comments and faces:  
GatJ8: he's gone full retard thanks obaam  
Afhir: think he's ahveing an allergive reaction to rex  
Oafy92: dam hes so srs right now :| :| :|

"Sorry guys, just gimmie a few minutes," he told the headset on the desk.

Reply.  
How soon would the team get together? Is there a gaming house, or are we just doing this online for the time being? Would I have to bring my own machine if there's a gaming house or will computers be provided for us? Are there any existing sponsorships or partnerships between FFG and other companies? When would we first be paid? Myriad questions, myriad typos, myriad twitchy fingers.

He read over his questions two times, three times, four times, looking for typos, looking to see if his grammar and spelling were correct, looking to see if there was anything else he wanted to ask. He hovered over Send ten, eleven, twelve seconds.

Send.

He put his headset back on and held Shift, "Alright, let's go."

"Cool." DeusRex has invited you to a game.

When teammates and opponents were found they accepted the match. And the next one, and the next, and the next, and they played into the wee hours of morning. They shared links of videos they found funny, articles the other may be interested in. They played _Scrolls_ , _Binding of Isaac_ , _Rouge Legacy_ , _Spelunky_ , and _Hotline Miami_ between the lengthy queues—they played anything that would keep the mind awake and the fingers active. They celebrated their victories and learned something, anything, from their defeats, and time continued forever onward, 2:13, 3:43, 4:48.

"I don't know about you, dude, but I'm tired as fuck. Thinking of calling it a night."

"It ain't even five yet. Don't be a lil' bitch."

"Fuck that, man, I've got a lot of stuff to consider in the coming week."

"Yeah, I guess. Viewers gonna be pissed at you for not doing SubWars, though."

"Fuck 'em. No! Just kidding, I love you guys. Like my own flesh and blood. We'll just…do one tomorrow or later this week."

"A'ight, you heard him guys. So just check the Twitters and the Facebooks at some point later this week."

"Oh I heard that yawn, don't try to hide it. And you said it wasn't even five."

"Well I might as well get up early tomorrow, as wel—"

"Yeah okay, man, whatever. Anyway, if anyone's tuned into my stream, thanks for watching. Sorry for not doing our weekly SubWars tonight but we'll make it up to you. Maybe I'll be on tomorrow, otherwise check later in the week for fun games and stuff. Bye," he waved and yawned at his webcam.


	3. Beyond the Sword

* * *

****

# 3  
Beyond the Sword

****

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." Bhagavad Gita

* * *

He would open the door to find pages taped on the outside. He would snatch them off before the parent could reach.

Why are you still awake? What are you thinking?! would ask the parent.

He would unfold the pages to find bills, water $294.11, phones $250, electricity $239.17.

When are you going to be a responsible paren—person and pay your own god damn bills?

When are you going to put that degree of yours to use and be a CEO somewhere?

You don't even fucking understand the world anymore, there are no fucking jobs, dad.

Stop making excuses and apply yourself already.

Stop being an irresponsible human being and asking your son to pay your bills for you, mom.

You have no idea what the real world is like, son, you're too young and inexperienced to understand. Don't argue with us, we know best.

The world's changed so fast these past ten years that you have no idea what you're even talking about.

I know enough about being a family, and I know you wouldn't embarrass us by disobeying your parents. It's your duty to help a family member. Think of your younger brother, is this the kind of role model you want to be for him?

He's your responsibility; I didn't choose to have him. How about you think about yourself and your own image and yourself as a role model: you think having parents who can't pay their own bills and would rather pay for cable and a few beers will help him in the future?

Just do what we tell you and grow up already, you're twenty-two for God's sake. It doesn't matter if the world's changed, you're obviously too lazy to get a nice job at a nice office and work with important people who actually make a difference in the world, and actually make money doing it.

Oh, they change the world alright, and they fucking make money alright, while they starve the rest of us out of it. You guys just don't fucking get it. Sooner or later it's gonna bite you in the ass, and by then it'll be too late for you guys to do anything. We don't live in a same world anymore. We've moved on and you just don't want to understand: we live in a digital age.


	4. DeusRex

* * *

# 4  
DeusRex

"And on the pedestal these words appear: 'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' Nothing beside remains." Percy Bysshe Shelley

* * *

A roaring crowd held up placards with insignias and messages written with markers. Well into the back of the room, hands waved ecstatically. Fists struck the air as voices chanted in unison "FFG! FFG! FFG!"

Rays of red and blue lights from above surfed around the crowd of people standing on their seats.

"FFG! FFG! FFG!"

Confetti fell from nowhere, camera crews followed reporters onto the stage and camera lights flashed from all directions.

"FFG! FFG! FFG!"

He ignored it all as he embraced the team. NeoTokyo moved closer holding his fist forward.

Bzzt, his pillow rumbled. Bzzt.

He tapped his phone and the alarm stopped. With burning eyes and mucus in his throat, he lifted himself up and strolled towards the bathroom, his hands acting as his eyes for the moment. A cold breeze snuck in through the tiniest space between the walls and window.

"George?" asked a calm voice with a knock. Continuing to brush his teeth, he unlocked and opened the door.

"I'm going now to see Madelyn, are you coming?"

He spit the toothpaste out, looking at her through the mirror, "I'm gonna be goin' later with Geoff'n Erica."

"Okay, any idea what time?"

He pointed at his left wrist with his right hand.

"Uh," she took out her phone, "12:50."

He showed two fingers. Three, and seesawed his hand.

"Okay, I'll let her know. Oh, and I left some eggs and sausages on a plate if you want any. I'm on my way now, though. Tell Geoffrey and Erica I said hi. I love you, George."

"Love you, mom." Breakfast had become cold, but it was still food. He ate with one hand, checked his phone with the other.

(12:52) Erica: puerta! D:

A knock. "Your mom opened the door for me," she said as she hugging him and leaning in to kiss him on the cheek.

"Want some?" he asked holding the plate to her.

"Mmm, I think I'll just wait to eat with Geoff," she said inspecting the plate.

"Were you watching us stream yesterday?"

"Mhm," she quickly nodded twice.

"When 'e asked about that email from Shel—well, lemme just show you."

She read from his phone, her eyes slowly opening wide, silently she gasped.

"Ohmygosh!" she burst out with embracing arms.

"Waitwaitwait, nothin's final yet, still not quite on a stable salary, or even in the official League. But I may have to disappear for a bit to dedicate my time to practice with the team and make sure we're actually a quality team. I'm not even sure if I'll be staying in New York for this since Shelly mentioned travel will be paid. I'm assuming there's a gaming house. I also have to let Madelyn know, she'd've been the first person I told, but I'd really rather tell her in person."

"So let's go tell her!"

"Gotta call Tokyo, though, see if he's up,"

The line rang three, four, five times. No answer.

"Let's head over ta his place if he's not picking up. Keep calling him while I get ready."

As they left the apartment she hit the call button again. She kept her phone to her ear as they walked down eight, nine, ten street tiles.

"Oh. Tokyo, ¡ _levántate_! We're coming over…No seas _bebé_ , it's like one o'clock. Get up…Geoff says hi."

"I bet he did."

They walked down the street, fingers locked together, discussing their week, this person and that video, this game and that episode. The streets were empty and quiet compared to the crowds and honking of the day prior.

At the curb of a major intersection a group of people sat on chairs, with a mountain of books piled on a table. Above them, on streetlights and tree branches, hung pairs of boots and sneakers that had always been there.

Nearby posters read "Prepare To Meet Thy God! Amos 4:12." A man with a megaphone shouted such and such things about a "Jesu' Crito" and a "Dios" and a "Rey." There would be no point in asking her to translate.

Atop a distant building a large billboard read "3 Million!" They walked past abandoned stores and derelict plots of land that had become a home for stray cats and plastic boxes and wooden boxes and smashed CRT monitors and bulky VCRs. This land would not sell, it was far too filthy to clean and turn into profit. Other areas were boarded off with plywood to keep the junk and the strays and the destitute out.

There were more window shoppers tapping at their pockets than there were actual shoppers within the doors.

They continued past broken, littered, and tarnished homes with letters sprayed on them. Cars outside the occupied homes were cars with numbers scribbled on them, cars recently cleaned and washed.

She called again, no answer. They sat on the steps outside, laughing, joking, talking.

"Last I checked, ten minutes wasn't twenty, Geoff."

"Fuck you," their fists met.

The girl hugged him and they quickly kissed each other on the right cheek.

"A'ight, so where we goin'?"

"Don't care, man, up to you."

"I know, let's just get whatever at the deli."

"A'ight."

"So, dude, we gotta play our asses off if we want FFG in the series. Oh, does Erica know?"

"Yap, he showed me the email."

"I think we can duo 'n' play some serious games for a while to see what we can do best before getting together with the rest of the team."

"Puedo ser coach y give you guys pointers cuando hagan tonterías."

"Might be worth a shot. Have you spoken with anyone else from the team since you got the email, George?"

"Nah, but I think I saw Zodiac on while we were in-game. He din't message me or anything. Maybe he was AFK or didn't wanna say anythin' in case it showed up on stream."

"Maybe we should talk with them, like set up a Skype call and set up some practice games. You already have everyone added, right?"

"Yeah, I'm sure we've both played enough games with and against 'em to be on each other's friends list. Ya thinkin' this'll be the actual team, or you think someone'll decline?"

"Uh…I don't know. To be honest, though, I'm not too sure what to think of Crescendo. No one's seen him competing at any competitive LANs and all we know is he's good at winning games with solo queue teams if they listen to his calls. I don't think that'll translate well into competitive play against practiced and coordinated teams with months or years of experience and structure."

"I can kinda see that making an impact in competitive play. What d'you know about Zodiac or WildCat?"

"Zodiac? Uh, well I know he played with a makeshift team at an MLG a while ago. He was playing with some other players we see in queue from time to time like Daze and…Shuriken, before she was picked up by Royale. And well, you know WildCat: king of solo queue with his god damn three accounts in Challenger. Kid's insanely good. If he were to join the team, I'd be extremely surprised since I'd imagine existing teams would be fighting with every penny just to have him on their starting lineup. Anyway, then there's this other dude who goes by the name DeusRex. He's so shit, I don't even think he belongs in Diamond, he's like some high Gold, low Plat, if you ask me."

"I've heard this NeoTokyo guy is pretty bad, too. That nigga ain't anythin' special…at all."

They ordered their sandwiches and ate up further discussing whatever crossed their minds, with their newfound opportunity the focal point of conversations.

"Holy shit, though, can't believe we actually made it to the top. And now this."

"Ha, and to think you fuckin' hated the game when I introduced you to it."

"Well yeah, but it was like a completely different game back then. New patches and content and shit resulted in a game that plays way differently and has some more competitive depth to it."

"It's a'most like you owe me for showin' you the game, now,"

"Mmm, well. Oh, I got it, I found FFG first, so Shellshock knows about you through me. I think we're even."

"By the way, d'you know what happened to…damn, what was her name?…that first grade teacher we had…"

"Oh yeah, hah! Fuckin'…god damn, what was her name. Why in the fuck can't I remember?"

"You got us caught playin' Pokemon and she took our Gameboys."

"Dude, I had like no health on Croconaw, he was my last Pokemon and I somehow beat Whitney. And then she wouldn't give me the badge. I'm pretty sure you would've reacted the same way."

"You remember what she said after?" he asked withholding a snicker.

"Oh yeah. I fuckin' remember. That sonovabitch had the god damn audacity to lecture us, the entire class, that video games were a waste of time and would get us nowhere. 'One day you'll be working in an office' she said, 'and you'll have to fill out paperwork all day and you'll have no time for toys and computers and your Pókemans and your playboys. One day you'll thank me.'"

" _Ella_ no dijo playboys. She didn't, did she, George?"

"She actu'lly did."

"Ah, so you remember she said that because a few years later you two found out what playboys _really_ were, verdad?... _Hombres_."

"Well, first of all, we remember her exact words because we then set out to prove 'er wrong…so mission accomplished on that front. Second, you may not have heard of it, Erica, but we have this thing called _el internet_ , now. Don't need no magazines."

"Oh god, why did I even say anything."

"Yo, George, you still have the Playboy Advance SP search in your history?"

"Nah, I'm not that advanced yet, I can't Google that until I find some good search results for Playboy Color."

"Okay, voy a escuchar my music y ustedes pueden seguir caminando down the street talking about your playboys so everyone _else_ can hear."

"But dude, you haven't heard about the magic of the PlayCube, yet."

–

"Y ella? Mirala, que guapa. Y blancita como tu."

"No, dude. Would you react positively if some random guy walked up to you randomly on the street or bus and complimented you or asked you out? Don't fucking lie, you'd think he was a creep, wouldn't you?"

"Pues, depende how he looks."

"Something tells me you're just saying that because you can't bring yourself to admit it's weird. Besides, you pretty much just said it's all about looks. If you'll talk to him because he looks cute or whatever, doesn't that just mean the only reason he's talking to you is because he thinks you're cute or hot or whatever?"

"Mira, solo estas overcomplicating something that's easy. You'll probably never see her again y ni te va concer if you bump into each other on the street. Just go talk to her."

"Where do you stand on this George?"

"I think I'm stickin' with Geoff on this one. Look at it this way, if I had just randomly asked you out an' you din't know me, you woulda probably looked at me all weird. Yeah like that. But since we went to school together, there's kinda already a reason for me to talk to you, like to ask what the homework was or whatever."

"C'mon, Erica, don't look so sad face…if I go talk to her, then will you be satisfied?"

"I think you should just go find out. Doesn't look like she's gonna say anything for a while. While you go over there I'll poke her cheeks until I make 'er smile. Look, see, he's goin' over ta her. You should be his official wingwoman for talkin'a strangers. Look at 'er, he hasn't said anything and already she's turnin'…ro-ho."

"Roja. Rosada."

"Oh, right. Yeah, that. See look, she's all coy now and she's makin' 'er body smaller. She must feel uncomfortable as fuck right now. The hell, why'd he point at you? Well, look at that, clearly a no. Happy now?"

"Well, ahi te va, Erica."

"Probably ni trataste."

"Well, if that's how you think it went down…Maybe we can try again later, preferably with something on the line. Like a lunch or a few dollars."

"Okay, enough bantering, you two. Let's get inside."

"How about next time you just go talk to some guy and see if he doesn't react the same way? I'm telling you, hardly anyone expects to be bothered when they're staring at their phone or just standing around. I'll buy you lunch if you try it."

"Fine, proxima vez we get the chance."

"Good afternoon. How may I help you?"

"Hi, here to see King, Madelyn."

"…305, left as you get off the elevator."

"Thanks. Kay, I'm goin' up the stairs."

"Why? Si los elevators estan right here."

"Well, if you wanna be trapped close quarters with people here, go right ahead."

"Let me jog up the stairs with you, Rex."

"Wait! Por lo menos hold the door for me!"

"A'ight, left off th'elevators Uh…should be…this…way?"

"What if it turns out she trolled us and the room's actually right?"

"There! _There's_ 305!" she sighed, relieved.

"Well, ladies first," he swayed both arms toward the door.

"Aww, aren't you just the most adorable, George?"

"Maddy!" she exclaimed rushing into the room.

"After you, Geoff."

"¿Cómo estás?" she asked as their hug ended.

"Muy bien. Thanks so much for coming, Erica. Geoff! Haven't seen you in a while, I was glad when I heard you would be coming."

"Yeah I finally had a weekend off from work. M'glad to see you're doing well, dude."

"Heyo, Sis."

"Hey, George. Hah! What the fuck? Flowers?"

"That's not all. Cup your hands."

"Aww, it's so cute. I didn't know they made Metroid plushies."

"They don't. I got it custom made, jus' for you, Sis."

"Thanks, George. He shall be named…Squishy."

"Estos asientos are _really_ comfortable! It's like they want tu cuarto to be a lounge or something."

"So, George, mom told me you and Geoff had something big come up?"

"Hah, god damn it, ma. Yeah, let me pull up the email."

She flicked her thumb upward on the screen and the permanent smirk on her face turned into a wide grin.

"No, nono, this is horrible. This is like the worst thing possible…I won't be able to watch your games from here. I highly doubt anyone could hook up a computer to the big monitor so I can see you in your glorious moments."

"Fuckin' Madelyn! Such a troll. You learnin' from Geoff?"

"Haha! Relax, I saw an opportunity so I took it. I can't believe you're both going to be fighting for a spot in the LCS. I feel like I should ask you both for autographs and strictly start referring to you as NeoTokyo and DeusRex."

"¿Sabes qué, Maddy? I think I should get autographs now too…while they're rare. Then tal vez I can make some good dough online when the time is right."

"Sign me up for that, Erica. Once you're in the LCS you should fly us over to Riot to see you guys play in person."

"Soon's you get better. How long the doctors thinkin' you'll have to stay for chemo?"

"Well, they're not exactly _saying_ so I think they can't even determine how long I'll have to be here. They're just trying to be cautious is all."

"Then iremos when they play in Worlds."

"How about we just worry about you gettin' healthy for the time being?"

"That's sweet of you, George, but I'm sure I'll be fine. Right now you've a chance to do something good, something you enjoy doing…and you'll have Geoff with you the whole way. Stop worrying about your little sis for a bit and focus on doing the best you can. Please? For me? Could you forget about my problems? Let me work on getting better, and I'll let you focus on playing your best. Sound like a plan?"

"…well a'right, if you're givin' me permission to clear my mind, I'll do just that. And this nigga right here, he's gonna keep me distracted so I won't go on tilt."

"I'll do my best. I'm probably better at that than I am on Rainbow Roa—god damn red shell!"

His phone rumbled. "Gimmie a minute, I'll be right back."


	5. Machina

* * *

# 5  
Machina

"The real problem is not whether machines think, but whether men do." B.F Skinner

* * *

He would walk down long hallways, past other patients who were admitted for numerous reasons. Men and women in their dress shirts, in their white coats, with clipboards and folders in their hands took intentional strides at New York pace. They would look down at their phones, picking, and tapping, and sliding, and typing every second of every minute of every hour of every day.

Of course all financial and monetary regulations for health would have to pass through national politics. Yet those writing and passing legislation were chess players who had no clue their pawns were starving, no clue their knights had no horses, no clue his rooks were asleep on the job, and believed everyone lived happily ever after in their white palace like the king and queen. Of course they would think themselves king, the best piece—what experienced person wouldn't?

He would take the stairs up or down a few levels. He would enter a restroom, he would check under the stalls to see if he was alone. He would wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, until all was clear.

He would turn on the hand dryers, turn on a faucet and ask himself why.

Why.

Why? as warmth trickled down his face.

Why was she so strong?

Why could she handle it all? as he slammed his hands on the counter.

Why could she ignore it more than he could?

Why could she never break from her smile?

Why could she never admit to her pain? as his vision blurred.

Why would she not tell him how he could help?

Why is she okay with the way things are?

Why could she endure? as tears stacked on his nose.

Why could he not see the world through her eyes?

Why could she not see the world through his?

Why was she so much stronger than he was? as he punched an indentation into the tiled wall the shape of an upward-pointing arrow.

He would return to the room checking his phone, joining in on the conversation at hand.

You're bleeding from your left hand, she said this time.

Shit, must've been when the door closed on my hand.

And ever so slightly her smile would fade.


	6. Pandango

* * *

****

# 6  
Pandango

****

"Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world." The Buddha

* * *

"So erythrocytes are the most abundant type of cells found in the blood. They typically last about one hundred twenty days, with most of the iron being recycled but some of it must be replaced. Normally erythrocytes are highly flexible cells that transport oxygen and carbon dioxide. Sickle cell anemia, however, causes RBCs to be" bzzt "much less flexible, and causes them to get caught. The bone marrow is res—"

> Confidential – Team Final Frontier Gaming  
>  Tue, Oct 11, 2016, 12:03 (0 minutes ago)  
>  **Simon Penn**  
>  to me
> 
> Pandango,
> 
> Final Frontier Gaming is inviting you to be a member of our team to compete in the upcoming _League of Legends_ North American series. We cannot give you the list of other people we have invited, but as of yet, two players have accepted our invitation. We are in need of a mid laner for the team, but of course roles can be swapped around if the need arises.
> 
> We have set aside a budget to pay for a player's travel, as well as a salary for at least three months. As you know Riot guarantees a stable salary for teams that qualify into the LCS, so making it there will be tougher than simply being on FFG.
> 
> Feel free to reply with any questions you may have or talk to me on Skype (contact information available at FFG's contact page). Please respond with an official answer by this Friday and we can discuss things in more depth.
> 
> Please try to keep this under wraps for the time being until we can make an official announcement. Try not to show things off on stream and try not to talk about or hint towards this on social media. I cannot stress enough how important this is to us.
> 
> Thanks, and game on.
> 
> Sincerely,  
>  Simon "ShellShock" Penn  
>  Founder, Final Frontier Gaming

"Jorge!"  
"…what?"  
"What is it in the blood that allows it to transport oxygen?"  
"Oh. Hemoglobin."  
"Yes. Hemoglobin is responsible for carrying—"  
A once in a lifetime opportunity, a rare one, in the palm of my hands and I can respond in just a few seconds, and my future could change forever. In the palm of my hands.

Who could the other players be? Two of them accepted already, possibly new people, unlikely that already salaried and sponsored players would take a risk with a newly formed team. Maybe someone wasn't able to keep their mouth closed and some information was leaked…the internet detectives would know something by now if that were the case.

"Alright, so then I'll see you guys Friday. Email me if you have any questions."  
God damn. Still one more class before calling it a day, but only three days to decide. Fuck it, I'll just have to get home 'sfast as possible and see if there's any news. Who could be the other two players who haven't decided yet? Maybe they're already in an LCS team and are negotiating for better deals?

Fuck, am I even good enough to compete at top tier? Can I play at the same level as the greatest of North American mid laners? Dasher? MissInk? Zoroichi? Who'm I missing? Phyros. Marlwolf. Do I have what it takes, or have I just gotten lucky up until now? That can't possibly be. I must be doing something right. Anything. I couldn't have gotten this far without having mitigated the mistakes I make while playing. Of course I can hang in top tier. If this works out, it'll be my job to mitigate mistakes. That I can do.

Who'll be on the team, though? Are they assholes who rage in solo queue? What if they just got lucky? That couldn't possibly be the case, could it? If I got this far by doing at least one thing right, they surely must have as well. And they can be anyone I play with on a daily basis.

What'll mom and dad think when I tell them about this? They'll probably want to see numbers or automatically think I'm getting scammed. Why are there still no eSports leagues in universities? I thought this was the place where we pioneer into the future, not stick to the same methods for decades. This'd all be far easier to explain and actualize if it weren't just a huge gambit raising red flags for everyone. Fuck.  
Fuck!  
Bzzt.  
(12:22) Michelle: Yo where are you?  
Shit…forgot again.  
Call sender.  
"Hey, Jorge, where are you?"

"Hey, Michelle, something came up during class. I'm going to have to skip next class and shit. Something important came up."  
"…Jorge, something always comes up with you. At this point I don't even know if I want to keep trying with you."  
"First of all, let me just say sorry. I know I haven't kept my word these past two or so weeks, but I've been finding it difficult to adjust to university. For this thing that's come up, I only have a few days to do some research on it, and maybe something big will come out of it. So if you're willing to put off one more day of my stupidity, I'll be all yours from here on."

"You know what? To be perfectly honest, I want to accept that offer. But I don't know if you're just going to keep doing the same thing day after day, week after week. Maybe I just need to set my expectations low and this relationship can work, but I really, really don't think that's what I want to do. Can you at least tell me what it is that's so important that we can't go to lunch as scheduled? You don't sound as ecstatic and kawaii as always. How serious is this?"

"…there's…there's this thing called eSports. It's…more or less it's competitive gaming, as…as a spectator sport. I was just invited to a team, and I have to let them know by Friday if I want in. I don't know if it's a reputable organization, though, so that's what I'm going to go find out for like the next two or three days. If you want to know why I'm going so far as to skip class and our planned lunch, I can show you a few videos and articles about what this is and why it's so important to me."

"So you're saying that some game is just going to—"  
"It's, it's not just a game."  
"Fine, okay. But you're saying this competitive gaming thing is more important than even going to your next class?"  
"If you let me show you the videos of past events and tournaments I think you'd quickly see why I'm taking this so seriously."  
"…I'll just…I'll talk to you later, then, if you're going to be busy doing stuff. I don't know how long I'll be willing to remain calm about this whole thing, though, so you're off the hook…for now."  
"Alright, cool. I'll call you later tonight if I get the chance. And I'll let you know what happens with all this."  
"…yeah."

She's fucking pissed at me. Damn it, Shellshock. Agh! The only thing that could make this day any worse is a Teemo shroom.  
I know what my parents are going to say, already. Why am I even bothering trying to convince them? If I go for this, would they kick me out of the house? What would I have to do to make this shit work? How would I get them on board without severing ties?

Music bled into his mind while he worked his way off campus. Students rushed in every direction, some running, some at the pace of snails, others standing in groups talking and laughing and overall enjoying the best years of their lives.

Upon the grassy knolls stood the eldest trees on campus, towering above even some buildings. From time to time landscaping crews worked on the vantage point: they would pull the weeds and cut the thin, young vines eager to grow. They left the ancient, clunky roots growing out of the soil to absorb all the nutrients and all the sunlight, to provide further nourishment and wealth and health, and to preserve the prestige of the old guard.

He exited from the black gates of campus and walked to the bus stop. Vehicles flooded the streets, vehicles driven by people who had gone through the same educational system he was in, and they were people who would perpetually fill roles because it was what tradition had dictated. They had all been processed and developed and trained by the scholastic assembly line to complete tasks to certain expectations and then move on to the next task and the next and the next. They had all been rewarded with letters and numbers that would be forever attached to their résumés alongside their other lists of accomplishments, one after the other after the other, with no time to think any further and with no time to reflect or criticize—there, another task, do that! it must be done! it is as those before me have done! no time to improve on it! it must be done now! immediately! why isn't it done yet, do you not want more letters and numbers to add to your résumés?

And do not burden yourself with the worry of educational costs. If you follow in our footsteps we will ensure we set you up with internships and eventually you will begin to make profits, just like us. In the meantime, look at this grand oasis we have built to train your mind. The fauna and shrubbery are sure to keep your mind at peace, and look at all of these events we have for students, just like you—no, especially for you. I do not speak as a businessman—I speak as a friend, and an educator. Look at all of these people, they are just like you. Think of this, think of now; do not worry about the world outside the school or where we find the money for this. When the time is right you will earn a dollar, one by one. We are resolute in our structure, it has worked for us for centuries and there is no need to change it now. We have all of this down to a science—this is the safest way to make it through life. Listen to the politicians, they have it all figured out: the only way you could possibly fail is if you are too lazy to work. They, too, have gone through this system, and so it is to be trusted. You are in the right hands, always—just do as we say. Do not take unnecessary risks, do not step where there are no more footsteps to follow, only those with years of experience can do that. Stay where there is sure footing, there is no need for you to attempt to carve your own footprints into the cement with a plastic knife. If you fail, you will be laughed at, no one can handle being laughed at, especially not a young person like yourself who has not experienced the troubles and difficulties of life. Always consider what others think of you, for they keep you grounded in reality. We urge you to stay where it is safe, we will provide you with a future.

–

[37:52] Pompow (Nasus) has targeted AES Marlwolf – (Lux)  
[38:13] Bls SaintSpark has slain AES MechaHive for a double kill!  
[38:16] [All] AES MechaHive (Volibear): :(  
[38:25] Pandango has slain Tahr for a double kill!  
[38:13] Pandango has ended Tahr's killing spree! (Bounty: 500G)  
[38:25] Pandango has slain JessThePinkMan for a triple kill!  
[38:25] Pandango is unstoppable!  
[38:25] Your team has scored an ace!  
[38:29] [All] JessThePinkMan (Lulu): real  
[38:29] [All] JessThePinkMan (Lulu): dat flash q  
[38:34] [All] Pandango (Karthus): lol  
[38:35] [All] Pandango (Karthus): wat r u talking about?  
[38:36] [All] Pandango (Karthus): i didnt' flash  
[38:37] [All] AES Marlwolf (Lux): long range skittles doe  
[38:46] [All] AES MechaHive (Volibear): damn panda ur pr  
[38:47] [All] AES MechaHive (Volibear): pretty good at lieing  
[38:50] [All] AES MechaHive (Volibear): I know the perfecet job for oyu  
[38:53] [All] AES MechaHive (Volibear): the governemtn  
[38:54] [All] Pompow (Nasus): xD  
[38:56] [All] AES Marlwolf (Lux): he's just kidding  
[38:57] [All] AES Marlwolf (Lux): there are no jobs  
[38:57] [All] Crescendo (Sona): :p  
[38:59] [All] JessThePinkMan (Lulu): rofl  
[39:59] Bls SaintSpark (Amumu): 4659 bar  
[39:59] Bls SaintSpark (Amumu) has slain Baron Nashor!  
[39:03] [All] Pandango (Karthus): lol wtf  
[39:06] Pompow (Nasus): oshit u landed the smite  
[39:10] Bls SaintSpark (Amumu): lol  
[39:10] Bls SaintSpark (Amumu): stfu  
[39:16] [All] Pandango (Karthus): will pentakill for monies  
[39:18] [All] Pandango (Karthus): pls  
[39:25] Crescendo (Sona) has targeted the Inner Turret  
[39:26] Pompow (Nasus) is on the way  
[39:26] Bls SaintSpark (Amumu): too low im scared  
[39:30] Crescendo (Sona): -_-  
[39:42] Pompow (Nasus): drag soon  
[39:46] Bls SaintSpark (Amumu): Cresh pls b  
[39:47] Bls SaintSpark (Amumu): plssssssssssssss  
[39:50] Crescendo (Sona): Either you help me take tower.  
[39:50] Crescendo (Sona): And we keep pushing.  
[39:52] Crescendo (Sona): Or I go alone, die, and we lose towers.  
[39:53] Bls SaintSpark (Amumu) is on the way  
[39:55] Bls SaintSpark (Amumu): y u always take ur team hostage? qq  
[39:57] Crescendo (Sona): Because win.  
[40:00] UltimateBurrito (Lucian): Saint stop crying in jungle and man up  
[40:03] UltimateBurrito (Lucian): ur crying so much I can see a river  
[40:05] [All] Pandango (Karthus): saint won't stop crying in your jungle  
[40:07] [All] Bls SaintSpark (Amumu): qq  
[40:10] [All] AES MechaHive (Volibear): i have a hug for him  
[40:12] [All] AES MechaHive (Volibear): come to bot inhib  
[40:20] [All] AES MechaHive (Volibear): I said bot not top  
[40:27] Crescendo (Sona): B after.  
[40:37] [All] AES Marlwolf (Lux): pls respond  
[41:05] Crescendo (Sona) purchased Sight Ward!  
[41:10] Bls SaintSpark (Amumu) purchased Sight Ward!  
[41:23] Crescendo (Sona): TP/Karthus ult cd?  
[41:30] Pompow (Nasus): 1min  
[41:34] Crescendo (Sona): Pressure top while we take bot?  
[41:35] Pompow (Nasus) is on the way  
[41:40] UltimateBurrito (Lucian): all mia  
[41:47] Crescendo (Sona): Want a ward in top jungle?  
[41:50] Pompow (Nasus): i'm good  
[42:18] Pandango (Karthus) signals that enemies are missing  
[42:24] Crescendo (Sona): They're probably all going up towards you.  
[42:26] Crescendo (Sona): We'll take bot if they do.  
[42:48] Crescendo (Sona) has targeted the Inhibitor  
[42:48] Crescendo (Sona) has targeted the Inhibitor  
[42:49] Crescendo (Sona) has targeted the Inhibitor  
[42:57] Pompow (Nasus): lol they sent 3  
[43:10] Pompow (Nasus): have FH  
[43:11] Pompow (Nasus): tanky as fuck  
[43:15] Pompow (Nasus): they gonna iwsh they hadn't let the dogs our  
[45:53] Crescendo (Sona) signals to be careful  
[45:59] Bls SaintSpark (Amumu): bar 1 min  
[46:03] [All] JessThePinkMan (Lulu): why you guys no come to me?  
[46:07] [All] JessThePinkMan (Lulu): I just want to give you cupcakes  
[46:14] [All] JessThePinkMan (Lulu): also  
[46:14] [All] JessThePinkMan (Lulu): saint  
[46:14] [All] JessThePinkMan (Lulu): cresencdo  
[46:16] [All] JessThePinkMan (Lulu): y u block minimap? :C  
[46:21] [All] Bls SaintSpark (Amumu): real  
[46:26] [All] JessThePinkMan (Lulu): everyone else  
[46:28] [All] JessThePinkMan (Lulu): y u no stream?  
[46:32] [All] Pandango (Karthus): lol  
[46:34] [All] Pandango (Karthus): I want you to tryhard, son  
[46:35] Pompow (Nasus): 51:40 lux falsh  
[46:36] [All] Pandango (Karthus): don't be so  
[46:40] [All] Pandango (Karthus): ENTITLED  
[46:43] [All] JessThePinkMan (Lulu): D:  
[46:43] [All] JessThePinkMan (Lulu): k  
[46:44] Crescendo (Sona) is on the way  
[46:45] Bls SaintSpark (Amumu) is asking for assistance  
[46:46] Pandango (Karthus) is on the way  
[46:46] Pandango (Karthus) is on the way  
[46:55] Crescendo (Sona) signals to be careful  
[46:56] UltimateBurrito (Lucian) signals that enemies are missing  
[46:57] Crescendo (Sona) signals to be careful  
[46:59] Pandango (Karthus): we baiting or gettign?  
[47:00] Pompow (Nasus): get  
[47:03] Crescendo (Sona) has targeted AES MechaHive – (Volibear)  
[47:03] Crescendo (Sona) has targeted Tahr – (Aatrox)  
[47:07] UltimateBurrito (Lucian) is asking for assistance  
[47:13] AES Marlwolf has ended Pandango's killing spree! (Bounty: 437G)  
[47:15] UltimateBurrito (Lucian) has slain Baron Nashor!  
[47:15] [All] Pompow (Nasus): these junglers doe  
[47:16] [All] Bls SaintSpark (Amumu): lol  
[47:16] [All] Bls SaintSpark (Amumu): saint is that you?  
[47:16] [All] xNietzsche (Jinx): wooololoolol  
[47:16] [All] Pandango (Karthus): pc  
[47:16] Crescendo (Sona) has targeted AES Marlwolf – (Lux)  
[47:17] UltimateBurrito (Lucian) has targeted xNietzsche – (Jinx)  
[47:17] [All] JessThePinkMan (Lulu): fkn sky lazrz  
[47:18] Pandango has slain Tahr for a double kill!  
[47:18] [All] AES MechaHive (Volibear): h4h4h4h4h oyur so funny  
[47:18] Pandango has slain xNietzsche for a penta kill!  
[47:19] Your team has scored an ace!  
[47:20] UltimateBurrito (Lucian): lol gj  
[47:20] Crescendo (Sona) is on the way  
[47:20] Crescendo (Sona) is asking for assistance  
[47:24] [All] AES MechaHive (Volibear): ggs  
[47:24] Enemy team agreed to surrender with 4 votes for and 0 against!  
[47:24] [All] AES Marlwolf (Lux): ggwp  
[47:25] [All] UltimateBurrito (Lucian): gg  
[47:25] Crescendo has started a surrender vote. Type /surrender or /nosurrender  
[47:25] [All] Crescendo (Sona): GG ^u^  
[47:26] [All] Pandango (Karthus): good agme duderinos :D  
[47:26] [All] JessThePinkMan (Lulu): geeg  
[47:27] Enemy team agreed to surrender with 5 votes for and 0 against!  
[47:28] [All] Bls SaintSpark (Amumu): gg wp  
Victory!

Alright, back to work. Let's see…Simon "Shellshock" Penn, played _Counter-Strike_ for Collateral Gaming, from 2004 to 2007—aged seventeen to twenty at the time. That'd make him…two thousand _seven_ , plus _nine_ to sixteen, twenty-nine. After playing he coached for two years, then managed for another two. Damn. This guy knows what's up.

Founded Final Frontier Gaming after leaving Collateral on good terms. Hmm. FFG…guides, forums, contests, online tournaments. NeoTokyo: most popular streamer, he plays every role pretty well whenever we're in the same game. Currently offline. Hmm.  
NeoTokyo…has been duoing with DeusRex for the last…every game. Tokyo: Shen, Renekton, Vlad, Shen, Aatrox, Yorick, Rumble, Rumble, Garen, Tee—Teemo. Such Teemo. My top laner—hello, Kyoto.  
Rex: Bli—is that a…jungle Blitz? Elise, Zac, Hecarim, Alistar, Elise, Lee Sin, J4, Eve, Eve. My jungler—hello, Deus Ex Machina.

"Jorge, when did you get home?"  
"Oh hey, ma. I got back about an hour ago. I came home early since I have to do some research on something important."  
"You already have a big paper due?"  
"It's not for school. Is…uh…is dad home?"  
"He'll be around in a minute—he stepped out to pick up some things at the store."

"Well, since you're here I might as well explain it to you. There's this thing called eSports, it's people playing video games professionally, for money, for glory…fame, too, I guess. It's like sports, but for video games. Let me show you a video—so this was earlier this month, World Championship where only the two best teams from the world played. Neither was an American team partly because…well most Americans don't know what eSports is or how big it is, so there are very few ways for people to get anywhere near the top and onto a world stage."

"Wait, is that a stadium?"  
"Yeah. Tens of thousands of people in attendance. With millions more watching online."  
"Why online? Can't they put this on TV?"

"Well, it's been tried about a decade ago, but honestly there are a lot of conflicts, and established organizations that already distributed competitive gaming content just did it so much better. TV tried to make it too much like traditional sports, but gaming can't be exhibited the same way. There are some fundamentally different philosophies between the restrictions and time slots of television and the freedom and flexibility of online streaming."

"Are you trying to say you want to do something like this?"  
"Sort of. Earlier today I got an email, and the founder of a gaming organization invited me to be a player. I may have to move, I'm not sure where yet but I'm guessing LA, New York, Chicago, Seattle, maybe."  
"Wait, are you serious about all of this?"  
"Yeah, look, I can show you the email. I've been looking up information on the sender, and it's definitely the founder. He has a long history in competitive gaming, so he knows how business works."  
"Wow, well this is great! Will all of this happen after you graduate?"  
"…that's the thing, ma. I've only got one chance. One opportunity, and that's right now."  
"Are you saying you're going to have to drop out of school?"  
"That's one way of doing it. But I'm thinking I can submit a request for a temporary leave. The email says I'll be paid for three months, so until the end of January. If nothing happens, I'll just continue next semester."  
"This is definitely something we have to talk about with your father."  
"Yeah, I know."

–

"No, absolutely not, this is silly."  
"Dad, I've only got this one chance. Even at twenty I'm too old. I'm already late. If I were seventeen or eighteen I'd definitely have the natural reaction speed to play my best."  
"I forbid you from doing this. There are always going to be people better than you no matter what. If this is your only chance and you're already past your prime, it's definitely not going to work out."

"You've told me countless times in the past that in life some opportunities are rare and that I should take them when I can. I can just do this for the three months and if it doesn't work out, I'll just continue with school normally and I won't pursue this anymore. Can we just do it that way?"

"Look, son, you're not thinking straight. Listen to yourself: you want to drop school for three months to play video games. Video games aren't going to get you anywhere in life. You're not going to be doing anything productive, and it'll probably lead you nowhere. This is extremely high-risk, and it's a risk you don't need to take. Just go through with school like everyone else. You can pursue video games when you're done with school and you'll have nothing but support from me."

"C'mon, don't you at least think you could believe in me just a little? Like, I'm sure you've taken risks in your life. Like all the fucking time."  
"Like all the _what_ time?"

"Sorry. But I'm sure you've had to make hard choices in your life, decisions you probably didn't want to make. And even then, if I fail at this, I can always just return to school easily. If I don't try, I'll never know. Isn't that how you met mom? You decided to go for it. You told me yourself that even you weren't sure if it would work out. You've always wanted me to give one hundred ten percent at everything, but now you're preventing me from even doing one hundred. I can't know if I'll fail if I don't try. What if you were born in a world where competitive video games were mainstream alongside football? You would have cheered on for your favorite team and I'd be sitting on the couch next to you cheering along. You would have raised me to practice football for an hour and then a video game for an hour. You would be urging me to take this chance—you'd probably be begging me to take it. And you'd be proud as _fuck_ if you ever saw your son competing and winning at something he's good at and something he enjoys doing. You've said it over and over again: you've followed your heart all your life and it hasn't failed you. You've told me many times to follow mine, and right now, mine is here. In this, I want to be able to pioneer something for the future and actually make a difference. When you ask me what good came out of playing a lot of video games, right now the answer is, I could have almost been a professional player. I want to be able to say that all those hours led me to playing professionally, and maybe I still can. If I fail and if I make a mistake because of this, at least I'll know. And there's nothing worse than not knowing. This is my wager to lose, and yours to win. If I make a mistake, I will own up to it. I promise."

"How about you give me a few minutes to think this over again? We'll talk at dinner, son."  
"Alright."  
"I think you made very good points, Jorge. I'll talk to him some more."  
"Thanks, ma."  
What if he says no? He seemed pretty adamant in sticking to his no. If he says no…then fuck it. It's not his decision to make. He can't live my life for me. This is my life. I get to choose. Wolves don't lose sleep over the opinion of sheep.  
Bzzt.  
(16:45) Michelle: You know what, I think I need some time to rethink this. Let's go our separate ways a bit. I'll let you know how I feel in a week.  
This isn't his risk to take—this isn't his education and his future and his life on the line. They're _mine_! Even if he'll hate me for it, I'll do it.  
Better start studying.  
YouTube.  
LoL coL vs Max 2016 NA LCS Summer Week 2 Day 2.  
03:10  
"—ecause this was a standard start with no aggressive wards placed, it was an optimal decision for Maxim to send two top rath—"  
19:42  
"—and at the end of the day Collateral just stood back and watched."

"And not only did they just kind of give up Dragon to Maxim, but MissInk made a run for that top lane. So she's immediately pushing the side of the map furthest from Dragon to punish them. It was a five v five that Maxim were daring Collateral to take, and since Collateral is a really smart team, even though Collateral could have contested Dragon and won that fight, it was a risk, and they weren't willing to take it."

"It does show a clear focus. They're more interested in towers than anything else right now. MissInk is taking a lot of tower hits, but she's facetanking it just to get her team their fifth tower of the game."

"And with five turrets to zero in favor of Collateral, that is exactly where all the gold difference comes from right now. The CS numbers are starting to normalize across the board, but Collateral is still six _thousand_ gold ahead and it's stayed at that value for a pretty long time."

"Sorcerer's Shoes have been picked up by Zoroichi, he's really going to want that additional mobility now that the laning phase is over" bzzt "and do a bit more damage as he roams around the map and participates in teamfigh—"

(16:47) Mammy: Don't let him know i told you but he cried tears of joy. You're in the green. Your father is proud to have a passionate man like yourself for a son. Let us know how we can support you in all of this. :)

God _fucking_ yes!


	7. A Future

* * *

****

# 7  
A Future

 

"The wisest men follow their own direction." Euripides

* * *

Reply.

I'll do it. My Skype info uses this same email. Let me know what I need to know.

Thanks,  
Pandango

Send.  
Log off.  
Login.

Compose.

Requesting Temporary Leave from University,  
Hello Dr. Norma,  
Something has come up recently and I am wondering how I would go about requesting a temporary leave from my studies. I will only be—

Hello Dr. Norma,  
I have been offered an interesting opportunity for employment, and I will have to take time off from school. I will be unable to continue my studies for the remainder of this semester. My temporary leave may take anywhere from three months to a year. I would greatly appreciate it if you would guide me through the steps I must take for a temporary absence.  
Thanks,  
Jorge Reyes  
Send.

NeoTrollkyo would like to add you to his contacts.  
GeorgeDeusKing would like to add you to his contacts.

Accept.  
Accept.

GeorgeDeusKing has invited you to join his group.

Accept.

GeorgeDeusKing: Yo. You know why we added you?

NeoTrollkyo: PANDA!

PANDAKAWAII: :DDDDDDDDDDDDDD

NeoTrollkyo: :D  
So we're planning on doing  
A team meeting sort of thing  
Over a Skype call  
Tomorrow or Thursday if you have time

PANDAKAWAII: Awesome. Let's do this shit.


	8. WildCat

* * *

****

# 8  
WildCat

****

"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." Benjamin Franklin

* * *

(20:34) DeusRex: yo you streaming?  
(20:40) DeusRex: :/  
DeusRex: y u gotta be afk on me tho?  
(20:45) DeusRex: reallllllllllllllllllllllll  
(20:48) Cat the Turtle: yo  
Cat the Turtle: Getting into Q tell me what's up  
(20:50) Cat the Turtle: lol y u gotta be afk on me doe? Reallllllllllllllllllll  
Cat the Turtle: so troll

Match Found!

coL Typhergus: top pls :D  
coL Ikarus: jangle  
coL Ikarus: trade me j4 wildcat?  
Cat the Turtle: Sure get me vayne  
DoobyScoo: drex can I mid pls  
DoobyScoo: I'll carry you :D  
DoobyScoo: pls  
DoobyScoo: :c

[00:00] DeusRex: should have dodged :p  
[00:00] DeusRex: ehh  
[00:00] DeusRex: let me know when you're done with that game  
[00:00] DeusRex: and don't start another  
[00:00] DeusRex: don't even queue  
[00:02] Bls Drex (Gragas) purchased Warding Totem (Trinket)!  
[00:03] coL Typhergus (Malphite) purchased Warding Totem (Trinket)!  
[00:03] DoobyScoo (Leona) purchased Sweeping Lens (Trinket)!  
[00:04] DoobyScoo (Leona) purchased Relic Shield!  
[00:06] [To] DeusRex: oooh why?  
[00:08] Cat the Turtle (Vayne) purchased Warding Totem (Trinket)!  
[00:10] DeusRex: gotta show you something  
[00:25] [To] DeusRex: no **** pics pls  
[00:30] DeusRex: lol  
[00:35] coL Ikarus (Jarvan IV) purchased Sweeping Lens (Trinket)!  
[00:36] coL Ikarus (Jarvan IV) is on the way  
[00:37] coL Ikarus (Jarvan IV) is asking for assistance  
[00:37] DoobyScoo (Leona) is on the way  
[00:57] DeusRex: NSA's coming out with new program  
[01:10] DeusRex: I found this thing  
[01:11] DeusRex: helps protect your data and privacy  
[01:13] coL Ikarus (Jarvan IV): 6 12 tr  
[01:14] DeusRex: its called freedom from government  
[01:15] DeusRex: or ffg for short  
[01:46] [To] DeusRex: o lol  
[01:50] DeusRex: send me your skype info when you're done  
[01:53] [To] DeusRex: K  
[02:12] Cat the Turtle (Vayne): yo leona  
[02:14] Cat the Turtle (Vayne): let's just go full ham lvl 3 and up  
[02:15] DoobyScoo (Leona): sure  
[02:28] Cat the Turtle (Vayne): carry the **** out of this lane

GeorgeDeusRex: move window to your other monitor

Jason the WildCat: I only have one monitor D:

GeorgeDeusRex: -.-

Jason the WildCat: um  
how long do you think this is going to take?

GeorgeDeusRex: not sure tbh

"Um…kay, so guys I'm gonna stop streaming for a bit. Give me like ten or so minutes. Maybe more. Or…you know what, I'll start streaming again in an hour. Thanks for watching so far. Sorry for the sudden change, but I'll be back. I promise. BRB." Stream Offline.

GeorgeDeusKing calling.

"—nyway, we just didn't mesh at all. She was like, super serious all the time and I was just dickin' around playing video games not even giving a damn about my classes."

"I think I'm on the same boat right now, honestly. I mean, I've fucked up a bunch before I got Shellshock's email, and then skipping out on lunch was like the last straw for her."

"A'right, a'right, we got WildCat. Let's get super serious now. As far as we're concerned, this is the full team. Panda, Tokyo and I have already accepted Shellshock's invitation. That means you two seem to be the only missin' pieces."

"Ehh. Hey, so if this is the team, I just want to get something out of the way. From what I know about how you guys play in solo queue, Tokyo and Rex seem to already have good chemistry. Pandango, you really, really know how to manipulate and control the flow of your opponents. Crescendo, if you're going to be our Support, I'm totally gonna respond to Shellshock as soon as we're done with this meeting. We always win lane that it's not even funny."

SW Crescendo: It's like we can read each other's minds. :o

"No mic?"

SW Crescendo: Yeah, something like that.

"Tokyo and I've been duo queuin' a lot recently and we're startin'a see some pretty serious changes in our playstyle. Maybe if you two put in some serious practice time together maybe you'll start seeing similar results?"

"Yo, Rex."

"It's not impossible. Dude, we can be like the best bot lane in North America, hands down. I'm calling it."

GeorgeDeusRex: lol racist ass nigga

PANDAKAWAII: lol

SW Crescendo: Well, I mean, we haven't really run into any professional duo bot lane. But it could be work a shot to try something out. I'm not sure about being captain, though. I haven't even really played in any REAL competitive environment.

"Panda, that's for you and Tokyo. Also, there's still Thursday 'n' Friday to decide whetha or not you guys want in on the team. Shelly didn't organize this call so it's not like you have to say yes now."

PANDAKAWAII: damn rex, so mean  
y u no like faggots? :C  
heartless bastard

SW Crescendo: Lol, Shelly?

NeoTrollkyo: Rex and I also call him Penny. He's a girl both times either way because trololo

"Rex and I have been thinking that we can also make a ranked fives team to see how we play together and to see what we can improve on. We could even do it right now if we really want to. Rex and I could probably carry us if you three weigh too much. I'm the one who'll be mainly carrying, though."

GeorgeDeusRex: fagcts killed muh daddy, killed his lungs  
And I have the best reason for my stance

"Ehh, I promised my viewers I'd stream again in an hour. Maybe we could do that tomorrow? So long as it's before Friday night so we can let Shelly know we're good to go, I'm assuming, right?"

"You guys don't even know. My link is the best. We could do it tomorrow if we can agree on a time. It may also be better to use smurfs so that people won't figure something's up if they see us in ranked fives. You all do have smurf accounts, right?"

Jason the WildCat: Am I am filthy casual if I play leageue?

PANDAKAWAII: ...What if I don't have a smurf?

"I could probably lend you one of mine, but you may not have the runes or champions you like on it."

"Sure, I guess. What are their summoner names?"

"One is TrinityJohto and the other is RaitoYagami."

"Oh shit, those are you? You always shit on me whatever lane we face each other in."

"Lol, well step up your game, Pandy. We should one v one at the gaming house. Loser has to date Rex the next day. Winner dates his girlfriend."

"In that case I'll lose on purpose. Cuz mmm, that bod."

"Wow. Well, I don't mind havin' my meals paid."

"I never said I'd pay, though. Happy face."

"Shit outta luck, George."

SW Crescendo: Okay, so looks like we're doing this smurf team, then? What time?

"Okay. Actually, you know what? I'm down for this. I can see this going places. I'm sending in my email. Crescendo, it's time someone takes you hostage. We're doing this bot lane thing. It's gonna work. Something tells me we're going a long way with this duo lane."

SW Crescendo: =w='  
I'd still have to reply to Shelly, thought. So I'm not really hostage. \o/

"Oh damn, WildCat. And I thought Supports made all the decisions bot lane. And I also thought cats were supposed to be all like…hella calm and chillax. So unkawaii. You could learn a thing or two from my panda skills."

"I'm sending in my confirmation email, man. Whether or not we become the best bot lane is up to you now."

Jason the WildCat: :3

"Top post on Reddit gonna be 'Team Takes Crescendo Hostage.' And solo queue will rejoice. But then he's gonna be our captain anyway."

"I'm typing it right now. Listen to my keystrokes. They seal your fate with each passing second. Oh shit, how do you spell 'sign me up?' It's like…N, and then O, right?"

SW Crescendo: I think it's spelled like this: I don't want to play for FFG. I'm a baddie and Crescendo would carry me every game. Shelly, pls.

"Oh, okay. I think I got all that. That last part was P-L-S, right? Oh, but no, I actually have a serious question. Does anyone know if Shellshock can actually be trusted? Like, he won't manage us until we win a tournament and then disappear like some of those other scum managers that people seem to run into, right?

"He can be trusted. George and I met him a few years ago at an MLG when we played at a LAN. He took our team back then to lunch and stuff. He has a wife and a young daughter. I'm pretty sure he won't be disappearing without someone noticing. But he's an overall cool guy anyway. He knows how the eSports scene works, he's played Counter-Strike professionally when he was younger and then did some managing and coaching before starting FFG from the ground up. If anyone knows how to protect players and organizations from corporate exploitation and fine print contracts, it's Shelly. Trust me on that."

"He's a really chill, dude, let me tell you. I think he'd fit right into this convo easily. Like, he prob'ly wouldn't find anythin' we say offensive."

"Which smurf you gonna want, Panda? I'll make the smurf team with one and use the other. Just let me know which you prefer."

SW Crescendo: What's the team name going to be?

"Umm. I'll see if I can get my old team name. If not, I'll think of something. Gimmie them smurf names so I can add you to the roster."

"You can add my TurtleSlayer one. Newly-30 smurf I'm working on."

SW Crescendo: Metronome.

"Can you get ARoD to work?"

"I think I'll take the Light Yagami one, Tokyo-kun."

"Not quite. No variations of it seem to be working either. Oh, wait. I got it. Looks like we're team MRoD. 'Murica Runs on Debt, sendin' out them invites. And you call me, Tokyo-sama, Panda-sama-kun-san."

–

"Hey, ma. So I've decided to go ahead with the FFG thing."

"Really? Wonderful! Have you told your father yet?"

"Nah, I was gonna ask you if you know where abouts in the places he may be."

"He's probably around somewhere. So it looks like you're going to be following in the Yeung family footsteps."

"Yup. This time around things might be a bit different, though. eSports has gotten big these past few years. Maybe I'll be able to stick around the scene even after I'm too old to keep playing competitively. I really hope I can make a lasting impact with this chance I've got here. I'm pretty sure I've got a really good teammate to help me out with bot lane."

"Have you played with him a lot in ranked?"

"From time to time. We've never duo queued, but it looks like the team is going to set up some practice games for tomorrow so we can see what we bring to the table as of now."

"Sounds like you already know what you're doing, then."

"Well, I've learned from the best. I hereby fire-quit myself as the guy who handles the cash register and promote myself to pro gamer for FFG. I have a feeling this is going to work out really well."

"What about the other people on your team? Or the owner, Penn, was it?"

"Yeah, the other guys seem really cool. They know the owner from a few years ago apparently. He has a family, little girl. Everything seems to be pretty legitimate. Two of the other guys on the team are featured streamers for FFG and they haven't said anything bad about Shellshock."

"If all of the business seems to be fine, then just keep in mind that you're a player. Remember that it's a team game. You're going to always be there for your teammates, and you also have to trust that they'll always be there for you. Always, always, always remember that the enemy team will be thinking the exact same thing you're thinking. They're going to be having the same internal issues you and your team are having. Try to find some advantage from that, or at least know you're not the only ones with those team problems."

"Damn, ma, you should coach again. I'm getting all jittery and eager to play right now."

"No, my time for gaming is over. Maybe if things were just a little different I'd still be heavily involved in competitive games, but sometimes things just don't work out how we want them to."

"Then I'll just have to do what you did, but better."

"So long as you remember that everyone playing is just as human as you. They have the same desires and feelings and emotions as you do. The way you feel when you win, that's how they feel when they win. The way you feel when you lose, that's how they feel when they lose. Sportsmanship, Jason. That's going to take you a long way. Firm handshakes, earnest look in the eye, honest smiles. And how could anyone resist that smile of yours?"

"It's like Medusa, but people are filled with bliss."

"How do you come up with all of these obscure references?"

"Internet."


	9. Young Dreams

* * *

****

# 9  
Young Dreams

****

"One doesn't discover new lands without losing sight of the shore." André Gide

* * *

His time had come. It was what he was born for. It was what he had dedicated the last few years of his life to. And it would all pay off now. All those sleepless nights, all those other missed opportunities, all those hours spent looking at frames, at statistics, at his predecessors. From the East Coast to the West Coast, from the West to the East, all the players he had aspired to be like, all the players he had admired, and all the players he had wished he could play with, he would be playing against—with just three months' practice he would be the best.

From the American players to the European players, from the Chinese players to the Korean players, from the German players to the Japanese players, from the Australian players to the Mexican players, from the Swedish players to the Brazilian players—with just three months' practice he would be up on the stage with the best.

In just a few days' time he would leave home, leave behind everyone he'd ever known, every face he'd ever seen in person, every friend he'd ever made, every place he'd ever visited—because he was the best.

He thought it'd be easy to leave it all behind. He thought it'd be easy to just pack up and leave. He hadn't thought this far ahead, he hadn't thought his heart could weigh his body down, he hadn't considered how hard it would be to let go. He hadn't considered how hard it would be to grow up; he hadn't considered that he may not be ready when his time would come. He thought it would just be easy to be the best.

But he had to endure. He had done it so far, and he could do it again, and again, and again. He had to endure, he had to adapt, he had to grow. He had to nourish his dream, he had to actualize it, he had to make it be, because no one else would do it for him. He had to strive for it, he had to work towards it, he had to find himself a muse, he had to find himself a reason—and it was that he had to be the best.

If he knew it would be this hard to move on, if he knew it would be this hard to grow, if he knew he would be internally torn at the last second, he may have done things differently. He may have stayed nearby, he may have changed his dreams. He may have admired the local heroes, he may have challenged a local issue, he may have been a different person, rather than to be the best.

But this was his dream, and even if he had known this all, he would do it again anyway. He would do it again and endure—he'd have to—to be the best.


	10. Crescendo

* * *

#  **10  
Crescendo**

"If music be the food of love, play on." William Shakespeare

* * *

“Posture: good. Back: good. Hands and arms: good. Legs and feet: good. And you’re all set. Begin.”

The first finger pressed down on the first key, and the harmony of the piano reverberated and resonated across the room. A slow, steady hymn hummed from the heart of piano. An adagio of soft notes, one after the other, played smoothly and calmly, emerging from the fingers that danced on the black and white keys. Arced hands hovered over the keys, they hopped against gravity, glided toward other keys, and the arced hands landed back down with perfection and precision. The blank face turned into a smile—the pace hastened, cheerful notes bloomed from the instrument.

Her hands and arms began to bounce around while her head swayed slowly to the melody. She closed her eyes and played the piece in perfection—her body was one with the music, synchronized. She embodied the aria, commanding her face and her neck and shoulders and arms to dance the piece as it came from her mind to her hands to the keys.

A thunder rang from the piano.  
Two.  
Three.  
Four...

…five roars shook the air, her head banging downward each time. Her eyebrows pulled inward and down, her brows of concentration transfixed on the power of the song. The blend of five notes played: the chord played in tangent, in harmony, in unison. The family of five continued on as the great opus began to settle. Her hands leapt into the air as she tightened her lips, the tip of her tongue escaping. Her sonata came to a gradual close.

Discipline. Posture, back, hands and arms, legs and feet default position. Hold for one, two, three seconds.  
The pianist grinned and ecstatically bounced in her seat.

“And you named this piece…‘Final Frontier.’ You…uh…you’ve never done that before, by the way. The way you moved to your own music. Your hands and body and face matched perfectly what you were feeling. I could feel the raw emotion and power in this piece, it’s quite tremendous. I feel like ‘Final Frontier’ was just itching to come out of you and it just burst out into this. It’s magnificent to say the least, not only did your music speak, but your body spoke with it, too…And I take it you’re going to choose to accept this eSports thing?”

The girl nodded with a smile frozen on her face.  
“Then you’re going to have to teach me what I need to know so I can cheer for you when you’re winning, okay?”  
The girl stuck her tongue out, rushed off the piano stool and embraced her mother.  
“You’ll still write and play music, right?”  
She nodded.

“Good. Send me what you write so I can have a look at it, okay? And text me or email me or write if you want to talk about something. This is new for both of us, so open communication, right? Good. Okay, I have business to take care of, so I will probably be gone for the rest of the day. Let me know if anything comes up? Okay. Good practice session, by the way. I love you, Sonia.”

She walked back to the piano, closed the key lid and picked up the copy of the sheet music she had written. She placed her phone back in her pocket, picked up her tablet, and made her way towards her computer. The original pages of the sheets music were sprawled across desk, around the mouse and keyboard.

She collected them into a pile, tapped it on the desk twice before setting it aside. She double clicked her journal and began typing:

> Octooooooober 14, 2016
> 
> So I played “Final Frontier” for mum today and she seemed to really enjoy it and approve of it. Working on it for five days straight seems to have paid off. I’m not changing the title from “Final Frontier” that’s there to stay now. :3 After having waited a week, and after having thought about Shelly’s proposition (Lol, I still find it funny to call him Shelly (or Penny)), I’m going to say yes. In fact, I’ll respond after writing this entry. :D  
>   
>  I still don’t know how well I could do as a captain of a team. I’m not sure why Shellshock thinks it could work out well. I almost feel as if any failure at all will completely be only my responsibility. :C  
>   
>  Oops, forgot to turn on music. :p HER LIFE WAS SAVED BY ROCK N ROLL! :D  
>   
>  But I’m really having conflicting thoughts here. I think the only reason I can lead a team well over Solo Queue is because the main method of communication there are pings and text. Sure, Kitty and I can sort of “telepathically” communicate for anything we’re doing in lane, but then I’d have trouble communicating with the rest of the team. At least I think so. ^^;  
>   
>  In a lot of interviews with current and past players, they seem to say there’s a bunch of communication issues from time to time. I really don’t know how I’d be able to improve in that area with my team. D:  
>   
>  If Shelly thinks there’s some way around this, then I’d trust his call on it. With his experience and guidance we should be able to work things out, though. Toky and Rexy seem to trust him enough with anything related to ESports, so maybe I’m just not thinking about what other options and resources I’ll have available once the team gets together in that gaming house Penny told us about in his second email. I hope things really work out well.  
>   
>  Ooh, also I’ve started reading _The Art of War_ seeing as how I’m going to be all captainy and shit. Maybe I’ll get a cool captain’s hat or something. I’m getting quite a lot of good ideas and ways to formulate strategies from reading Sun-Tzu’s stuff. And I’m also learning a bit of Chinese tradition and history in the process. One of the things I found interesting from the early notations was the concept of punishing the commander if his soldiers fuct up. Normally, at least how I think of it, punishment should happen to the person or persons who are acting out of line. But the philosophy of punishing the commander or the teacher or the parent for the faults and flaws and misbehavior of those they are leading or teaching or raising just makes so much more sense. I’m not sure I want to punish myself though. Hopefully no one else on the team has read _Art of War_. ¯_¯  
>   
>  I’m not sure what I want to be for Halloween yet. D: Maybe I’ll just cosplay another champion this year.  
>   
>  Oh shit, I have to let my friends know I may have to move in order to play professionally. Gotta do that after I email Shelly.  
>   
>  AND A REUUUUL HERO, REAL HUMAN BEING! :D  
>   
>  I’m thinking I need a new anime to start watching. I’ve recently finished _Sword Art Online_ and I really enjoyed it. There were some parts that were pretty meh, but overall it was really funny and really good. Maybe I can start looking around for just some new manga series. Or I could also look for some more online comics like that Nuzlocke one. That was a really, really, REALLY funny read. Those faces are just the most hilarious things ever.  
>   
>  OH! Maybe for Halloween I could go as a Pokemon. Maybe like Gardevoir. Or Blaziken would be pretty cool to make. Or maybe I could be the ice cream one. LOL, that’d look so dumb. Maybe something like Bellossom would be nice to craft, too. But then there’s also like Zelda or Samus or Chun Li. I wish I could cosplay like Jessica Nigri. I WANNA BE THE JESSICA NIGRI!  
>   
>  Oh and on the topic of Zelda and Samus, I recently found out I suck at _Smash Brothers_. :c I don’t know how they play _Melee_ like that, it’s just fucking insane. I can’t believe there’s still a lot of people who love _Smash_ around. If only Nintendo liked the attention it was getting. Maybe FGC and ESports would have been better for _Melee_ in its golden age. Also, Abigail recently sent me a link to _The Smash Brothers_ documentary that was made a few years ago. I’m only a few episodes in, but it’s really, really good so far. I’m liking the flow of the story and how it unfolds. I should probably finish watching it before heading out to the gaming house. Maybe I’ll learn something more about competitive gaming that I hadn’t thought of before.  
>   
>  I feel like playing some _Minecraft_ again soon. I haven’t played in a while and kind of want to just build something new.  
>   
>  SOME DAY THOSE TEARS ARE GONNA SPILL. SO BUILD THAT WALL AND BUILD IT STRONG CUZ WE’LL BE THERE BEFORE TOO LONG!  
>   
>  _Bastion_ was such a good game! I cried at the end. T_T Twice. T_T Even though I knew what was going to happen for the other ending, I still cried. Supergiant such a good developer. And fucking _Transistor_. :X Too many feels. T_T  
>   
>  I wish I had a voice like Ashley Barrett’s. So pretty and sexy as fuck. Just listening to her sing makes me want to cry out of an overdose of beauty. ;-; I would marry her just so I could hear her talk and sing all the time. :3 And Darren Korb. That voice and music too good. I’d also marry Wife! And Jessica Nigri! And Notch! I should make them all my waifu! THERE AREN’T ENOUGH PEOPLE IN THE WORLD TO FALL IN LOVE WITH AND MARRY!  <333333333333333  
>   
>  Oh shit! OH SHIT! I just realized I could talk to Shuriken and Tempest and xNietzsche and ask them what communication is like on a team and how it’s fixed. We could conspire to join up and make an all-female team. ¯u¯  
>   
>  I wonder what my teammates are like IRL. Everyone knows Rexy and Toky are tight bros. I wonder what they’re like off stream and out of the game. What about Panda? He sounds like a pretty cool dude, too. I wonder if he has any pet pandas. That’d be so cool. :o If I ever had a pet, it’d probably be like a Poro. :3 :P :PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP Ugg. Such an overdose of cuteness and kawaii. :3 TuT Or maybe I’d get a Togepi as a pet! Or a Charmander! :D Eeeeeeee, or a Pichu. I should main Pichu in _Melee_.  
>   
>  Maybe I could be Misty for Halloween. Or Cynthia. Or Lyndis. But it’d be difficult as fuck to make my hair like hers. D:  
>   
>  Kitty always seems like a cool kid on stream. He’s so young, too. 18 according to his FAQ on Twitch. Among one of the youngest players to compete professionally in the LCS. And he has like a million accounts in Challenger. How in the world does anyone do that? HOW!??!?!?!?!  
>   
>  We were pretty successful with the smurf team thing that we did. Everyone knows so much about the game, timers, and concepts, and strategies. Maybe I won’t have to work as hard as I originally thought to keep the team on the same page. But then again, we haven’t really played against any professional teams. I wonder what kind of skrim partners we’re going to have. If Shelly knows the ESports scene, I’m sure he’s got a list of teams that’ll be willing to play with a newly formed one. We’ll see.  
>   
>  And LOL, Toky has a smurf named after Light. I wonder if he’s only read the manga or watched the anime. Or maybe he’s done both. We should talk about the stuff we’ve watched. If I had to guess who he was by his name, I would have thought he was Japanese. But he doesn’t sound like it, nor does he look like it from what I’ve seen of his stream. He’s soooooooooooooo super weeaboo. And then everyone knows Rexy has like a crush on _Elfen Lied_. There’s so much to discuss. Not enough time to do it, though. D: And then there’s like a million more things I could talk about with them and Panda and Kitty. ! What about Shelly?! What about his wife?! And they apparently have a daughter. I wonder how old she is. I could totally train her to be my Pikachu. :3 She’d follow me around everywhere with Pikachu ears and red cheeks. xD Now I that image will just stay stuck in my head forever.  
>   
>  WELCOME TO OUR WORLD, WHERE YOU ALWAYS GET THE GIRL, YOU MAY LOSE A FIGHT OR TWO BUT YOU’LL WIN IF YOU GET THROUGH! FACE UP AND CHALLENGE ALL YOU EVER KNEW SINCE YOU COULD CRAWL, ALWAYS LOOKING SOMEWHERE ELSE WHEN IT’S ALL INSIDE YOURSELF! I WANNA PLAY UNTIL I DIE, DON’T WANNA LOSE MY REASONS WHYYYYYY! I RACE TOWARDS THE SKY, IN A WORLD THAT NEVER ENDS!  
>   
>  I should get to work on some stuff. D: Until next time, Word Eater!
> 
> Sonia “Crescendo” Wintory

-

“And I-I like what Espada said there about Royale’s style of play: ‘They accelerate the game.’ And that’s what a lot of other teams don’t do, if they’re in the lead, they _hold_ that lead but don’t accelerate anything.”

“And a lot of the best teams that we’ve seen in League of Legends history have been those teams that know how to play fast and just dominate with the smallest of advantages.”

“Alright, everyone, now that we’ve heard from the teams, let’s have a look at today’s starting lineups. On the Blue side: it’s Royale! Shuriken in the Top Lane, Dendra in the Jungle, Phyros at Mid, Covert playing Marksman, and Izbiri at Support.”

“And on the Red side it’s the underdogs in this one: Team Ampersand. We’ve got Toxiform in the Top Lane, Tempest in the Jungle, Espada, happy as always, in the Mid Lane, Aeaza on Marksman, and Militia on Support.”

“And our featured match up for this Semifinal Series is the _melee_ in the Mid Lane: Royale’s Phyros versus Ampersand’s Espada.”

“Yeah now this one’s gonna to be interesting to watch. Espada is generally a very explosive player who can find small advantages in lane and just run rampant the rest of the game if the enemy team doesn’t have an answer for him.”

“Right.”

“Phyros, on the other hand is a very calculated player. He knows how much he can handle and how much he can deal. So he can arguably just play safe and farm early game without putting himself in harm’s way until he knows he’s got a trap for Espada.”

“Alright, Masua, we’ll see which champions they’ll use this match, but _first_ let’s see who _you_ think will win. I think I know who the fans voted for. And according to LoLESports dot com, eighty-two percent of you think Royale will be the team to join Collateral in the World Championship.”

“And that is an expected number, you know, Royale has been quite strong throughout the season, and they usually win against Ampersand. But even the fans here are giving Ampersand a little bit of credit. Royale has only gone through this once before, and maybe they’re still susceptible to the jitters every now and then playing in front of a crowd. But Ampersand is an organization that has stood the test of time for a while now, and they’ve also had to play on these stages before to qualify for prior World Championships. I’m not sure which of the two is more confident here.”

“And we see now that we’ve entered the Pick and Ban phase that Ezreal was banned away from Aeaza, Sona from Militia, and Zac from Dendra. Royale are _really_ focusing a lot of bans on that Bottom Lane and for a good reason. Aeaza is extremely good at surviving with little to no peel, and if Royale were to risk having her play Ezreal, things could be rather complicated in mid and late game.”

“To further punish them, they also banned Sona from Militia because Royale likes to play the farm game early and they _don’t_ want to get poked down. They’re a bit pacifist in that regard, like Covert and Izbiri are saying: ‘Hi, we see you, please don’t hit us, and we won’t hit you.’ Make no mistake, however, they _can_ be extremely aggressive if they see an opening. At the same time, powerful ganking champions like Volibear or Maokai could easily slip into Ampersand’s Jungle. Maybe Royale’s plan to go for the Ashe-Zyra combo might backfire on them…the other bans are Zed from Phyros, Kassadin from Espada, and Evelynn from Dendra as well. It looks like Ampersand has banned away more champions from Royale’s Jungle, and it’s really a very smart decision. We’ve seen in the LCS that a lot of the power plays from Royale start off from very well-coordinated ganks by Dendra. By banning out Zac and Evelynn, they’re really taking care of possibility of a surprise initiation either from fog of war or from a path that wasn’t secured with True Vision since Evelynn is an invisible unit until she’s _just too close_ , which is too late at this level of play. We’ll also be seeing Kassadin and Zed taken away from the Mid Lane completely. These are both champions that, with just a little bit of a lead and a few seconds of having reaching level six, can decide the pace of the rest of the game. It looks like both teams are in this for the long haul with very few assassins left to pick.”

“So it looks like Royale is comfortable with a first pick Elise. This is a good pick because it doesn’t give Ampersand any real information on whether she’ll be played by Dendra in the Jungle or by Shuriken in the Top Lane.”

“It looks like the ambiguous pick isn’t going to faze Ampersand, they’re locking in the Shen and Lee Sin instantly. And you know what, Remington? Royale’s also going to just instantly lock in that Ashe-Zyra combo. _I saw_ it coming and _Ampersand_ saw it coming. Lee Sin and Shen are some pretty good champions to have once everyone on the map reaches level six. A well timed Stand United from Shen can easily turn around a skirmish or teamfight that an Ashe-Zyra lane starts. And for the rest of the game Shen will just splitpush whenever there’s nothing going on anywhere else on the map.”

“Yeah, these teams can read each other quite well. But since neither team hesitated to lock in those picks, maybe they actually have something else planned that might make the other team reconsider their team comp.”

“So now Ampersand’s just said: ‘Aha! Hold on a minute.’ They’re taking a bit longer to pick this time…and it looks like they’re going to hover over Fiddlesticks for a while. That may not be such a bad pick, a well-timed Shen ult with a taunt and a Fiddle ult is a very dangerous combination which they could easily do if they can negate vision from Royale. And Support Fiddle can throw out those crows to harass Ashe-Zyra with fairly decent damage. And then of course the fear is a very strong initiation with a Lee Sin Jungle to back you up. So it looks like they’re going for Fiddle-Cait. Caitlyn’s long range is a pretty good answer for Ashe-Zyra as well. Ampersand have autoattack range, Piltover Peacemaker, and Dark Wind to counter Royale’s passive playstyle early game. But if there’s a kill or two for either team, that lane might very well be over. These picks, however, do look like they’re purely reactions to the Ashe-Zyra—other than the poke, Ampersand have a sort of dissonant Bot Lane. Fiddle can be something more of an initiator or a peeler, hardly both. Meanwhile, Caitlyn is a champion who sits in the back of the team chipping away at her enemy’s health bars. But that’s exactly the playstyle Aeaza is good at, so we’ll see whether or not this lane meshes well.”

“The last picks for Royale are going to be Fizz…and…Rumble. So it looks like Rumble is going to be heading to the Top Lane with Elise in the Jungle.”  
“So this opens up the chance for really strong ganks Bottom once everyone’s level six. Either Jungle or Bot Lane can start off with crowd control, and there will be at least two more slows or snares or stuns. This Bottom Lane is going to be a really scary lane for this entire game. And if Dendra sees an opening in Mid Lane, he and Phyros can just burst down whoever Ampersand picks in response. The Rumble pick is more of a standard pick for Royale here. Shuriken has played Rumble extremely well all season, and the team seems to be thinking: ‘Why would be change that?’ Which is a really good mentality to have when the stakes are this high. So the AoE damage and teamfight of Royale is as strong as ever with the Enchanted Crystal Arrow, the Stranglethorns, and The Equalizer. I don’t know how Ampersand plans to respond to this."

“Militia here, toying with the crowd, is hovering over Heimerdinger.”

“No, he’s not toying. Ampersand is _totally_ going to send Fiddle Mid and use Heimer as Support, it seems like the kind of thing Ampersand would do just to mess with Royale a bit.”  
“And they’re going for the Diana pick.”

“Ooh, now Diana is a pretty good matchup against Fizz. This is going to be amazing since it’s our featured matchup and both of these champions can easily burst down anyone. These aren’t your typical assassin picks, but again most of the popular ones are off the board and these seem to be acceptable replacements. Diana is a very all-in type of champion which synergizes quite well with Lee Sin, Shen, and Fiddlesticks. So if Ampersand ever gets the drop on Royale they’re _going_ to lose objectives. What’s good about Diana rather than, say Ahri, is that she’s a bit of a better duelist and she's got that all-in, surprise attack, ‘Oh look your health bar is gone’ kind of play style. But while this is a good pick for Espada, I don’t think Ampersand have a decent enough composition for teamfights. If they’re going to want to win this one, they _have_ to pick off one person in Royale’s Jungle or they’re just going to be racing against time. It’s uncharacteristic of Royale to mess up on teamfights, so Ampersand have to play with… _absolute_ precision.”

The VoD continued playing while she reached for the notebook she had purchased earlier that day. Red, the color complimentary to her cyan hair. With a black marker she wrote the title on the cover: Dal Niente.

She flipped open to the first page and began writing: Final Frontier’s Road to Victory. Ampersand’s weaknesses…


	11. Game of Inches

* * *

#  **11  
Game of Inches**

"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win." Sun-Tzu

* * *

She took off the green arm warmers to let her arms breathe. The lone scar running down her left arm beckoned. It served as memory of her younger and more vulnerable years—the years when her instruments were only tools to play the music of others, and when video games were only buttons to press to pass the time. She’d used music and games as a shield from the kids who’d made fun of her. Kids could be so cruel, even if solely for the sake of being cruel. Adults, she’d found, were no different.

If her mother hadn’t been there, she’d’ve never grown. She’d’ve never spoken through her own music. She’d’ve never spoken through her playstyle, through her tactics. She’d’ve never made the friends she had, she’d’ve never learned from her mistakes. She wasn’t even her biological mother, but had earned the title Mom. If only there were more people like her in the world, who embodied the virtues of love, truth, and honesty.

If anyone in the government were to say the sky was blue, the grass green, all one would have to do is peer toward the window—of course the sky would be gray, the grass brown. But all our screens seem to bring far more comfort. And those who’d said hard work was the only thing someone had to do to get out of poverty did not understand the world where even all the hard work in the world is insufficient. From her window she could only see the rooftops and the tiny cars and buses of New York. From up here, she could not see the faces of those who toiled nonstop.

Of course Wall Street would also say “mistakes were made,” evade responsibility, and play the blame game. Just like solo queue, only with real repercussions that actually hurt people. Of course the working people were those most affected by the mistakes of few. Bankers were not the ones losing homes, bankers were not the ones losing jobs, bankers were not the ones unable to afford gifts for their family, for their children. The working people had endured it all.

Life is but a game of inches. Mistakes were made is an unacceptable excuse for a leader, for a captain, for a team—for anyone. Because when did mediocrity and conformity become admirable?

A self-made promise: no excuses, only hard work, dedication, reflection. No impulsive choices, no miscommunication. My teammates have probably made the riskiest decision of their lives, and they’re probably no older than twenty, twenty-two maybe. This is going to work. It has to work. _I_ have to _make_ it work, she thought as he put her arm warmers back on.


End file.
